


Trust Me

by JCapasso



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27434131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: Starts from the end of 2x10, the wendigo episode. Audrey puts her faith in Duke instead of going back and forth and it changes everything.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

Audrey was trying to get her head together after killing a man. No matter how often she had to kill in the line of duty, it always hit her hard. She didn’t know if she was glad or not that this one wasn’t nearly as hard. She’d seen how many lives the rev had ruined. The war that he was trying to ignite. She was saving a child that he had been about to kill. She didn’t regret it. It was still hard though. When she noticed Duke walking over, she wasn’t sure if she was glad or not. Usually, Duke was the best person to help her get her thoughts together. He was the one person who could break through her shell with no effort, but the way he’d been acting lately…she wasn’t sure which Duke she was going to get. Still, she couldn’t help but tell him, “There’s going to be an inquiry…into the shooting. I’m going to have to explain why I didn’t aim for his leg.” 

“That’s a good question,” Duke said tightly. “Why didn’t you?” 

“Are you serious?” Audrey asked incredulously. Asshole Duke it was apparently. 

“Look, you’re…you’re not gonna see me crying at the rev’s funeral, but…your timing, Audrey? An hour before you killed him, he was dangling the keys to Haven in front of my nose and I was /this/ close…Because of you…I got nothing,” Duke said irritated. All that work he put into getting close to the disgusting man, even going so far as to lose the respect of his friends, it was useless. 

“Well, I’m sorry,” Audrey said sarcastically. “I’m sorry that I screwed up your plans.” When Duke just glared at her before turning to walk away, she stopped him. “No. If you were with the rev…and he was about to kill that little girl…would you have stopped him?” 

Duke felt his insides turn to ice as his face hardened and his walls went back up to max. “Honesty? I don’t know,” he lied. He had never bothered to fight his reputation before. Just let people see what they wanted to see. He thought she was different, but apparently he was wrong. 

“Well you need to figure that out, Duke,” she said harshly. “Because while you’re looking for answers? The rest of us…we’re fighting a war.” She started to walk away before stopping and looking at him coldly. “I did what I had to do,” she snapped before continuing to walk away, not noticing Duke’s stricken face watching her go. 

Audrey got back to the station and turned in her gun and badge temporarily while the investigation was carried out and went to straighten her desk for her absence. By the time she was finished, she felt bad about what she’d said to Duke. When she noticed the lights on in the gull she detoured through there before going upstairs to her apartment. “We’re closed,” Duke called as she opened the door, not even looking up from his drink. 

“Duke…” Audrey started to say before she was cut off. 

Duke still didn’t look up and just refilled his drink as he said, “You know…most of this town thinks I’m trash, and I’m good with that. There’s no point fighting it. People see what they want to see. But you…you were different. From the moment you got here, somehow you saw right through it all and actually saw /me/. The fact that you could stand there and look me in the eye and ask me that question…” He sighed heavily, draining the last of his glass and setting it down on the counter. “Goodnight Audrey. Help yourself and lock the doors behind you.”

“Duke, wait…” she called, but he just waved a hand back at her in dismissal as he headed out the door toward his boat. She laid her head on the counter, willing the tears away before she sat up, poured herself a drink from the same bottle as Duke was using and chugged the entire glass. She had one more after that before putting the bottle back where it belonged and taking the glass back to the sink and washing it out. Once she headed upstairs, she finally let the tears fall as she got into bed. Hopefully she would wake up and this whole awful day would just be a nightmare. 

The next morning, Audrey went looking for Duke, but only made it as far as the deck before she could see that his boat was gone and she just swallowed heavily around the lump in her throat as she headed back inside to make herself some coffee. She had hoped to share it with him and talk this out. As she sat down to drink, she forced herself to realize that Duke wasn’t necessarily avoiding her. He was always out and about somewhere. She had slept late anyway since she wasn’t going to work. He probably just had things to do. She swatted away the thought that every time in the past that they’d had a disagreement, he was waking her up with coffee and sometimes even breakfast depending on how big the disagreement was so they could sit down and talk it out. 

The next few days were a nightmare, and not just because Duke hadn’t been back. She had even started letting herself wonder if he was coming back at all. From the talk, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d left for a long time. Since her even greater frustration was that she was out of work and stuck sitting at home with nothing at all to do, she couldn’t even keep herself from dwelling on it. She’d realized when she watched him die during the groundhog day that she might just be in love with him and now she had probably completely blown it. Just because she was hurting and lashed out. When she finally did get back to work after the investigation cleared her, she was more than a little distracted, but apparently Nathan just thought it was about the shooting, so she let him think that. 

While they were working, Audrey noticed Duke in town talking to Vince and Dave. She went to call out to him, but he just gave her a look that she couldn’t decipher and turned to walk away. That didn’t help her distraction level either. They managed to get the trouble solved without too much fanfare, but unfortunately, two dead bodies. Thankfully, neither of them could be put down to her negligence due to distraction. She was still reeling over Duke’s avoidance and was considering whether to go talk to him or give him some more time when Nathan actually handed her Lucy Ripley’s address. She had no idea why she kissed him like that and was kicking herself for it as she drove off. Just because she was hurting over Duke and so beyond grateful for his help didn’t give her the right to lead him on like that. Hopefully it would just be chalked up as gratitude and never be mentioned again. 

When Audrey got back to town the next day, she couldn’t put off talking to Duke anymore, but the conversation would be very different now. At least the first conversation. She still intended to talk about their fight, but there was something else more important. She went straight to his boat, before the station, before home even. “Duke,” she called as she rushed down the stairs to the deck. 

“Audrey,” Duke said nervous and surprised. 

“We need to talk,” she said seriously. 

He hesitated a moment, looking back and forth between her, Dwight, and the box before walking over to her. He didn’t want to just brush her off, but he really did not want to deal with their issues right now so he would just have to make it clear that he was busy. “You are not going to believe what my father had hidden below decks.”

“Your father’s exactly why I’m here,” Audrey said quickly. “Lucy Ripley…I found her.” 

“What? What did she say?” Duke asked, honestly happy for her. 

“That she knew your father. That he visited her twenty seven years ago.”

“Why? How did he know her?” Duke asked completely baffled. 

“I don’t think that he did. I think he was looking for me,” she told him. 

Duke was just about to respond when he caught movement from the corner of his eye and turned around with a drawled, “Wooow. Buddy. My feelings are actually hurt,” he said, stopping Dwight’s attempt to steal the box. “What happened to honor amongst thieves?” he asked gesturing with the long knife he’d pulled from the box. 

“I said I might change my mind,” Dwight pointed out. 

“Yeah. You did,” Duke said with a nod, glancing back at Audrey. “He did.” Just as he went to turn back around, his face met the box Dwight swung at him. He quickly steadied himself on the table, grabbing Dwight’s arm and instinctively slashing the knife. He wasn’t expecting it to hurt him as much as it did Dwight. The blood felt like it was burning him alive as he collapsed, shaking. 

“Duke!” Audrey cried worriedly, rushing over to him. “Are you okay?” He tried to answer her, but he didn’t think it was actual words that came out. “Duke…” she said again warily as she saw the blood sink into his skin. “What’s going on?”

“I…I don’t know,” Duke ground out tensely through the pain. 

Audrey sucked in a sharp breath as Duke’s eyes started to glow silver and was trying to figure out what was going on and if he was okay when she noticed Dwight coming for his back with a crowbar. “No!” she cried out in warning, gasping as Duke spun insanely fast, grabbed Dwight’s arm and threw a punch to his chest that had Dwight flying through the air well over the side of the boat and splashing down in the water. She ran over to the edge and looked at the water worriedly. “Where is he?” she asked in almost a panic. 

Duke stumbled over, just as worried, though he tried not to show it. He scanned the water for a minute as he said, “Don’t worry. He’s a fricking army ranger. He’s fine.” Duke took a few deep breaths, trying to get his head back on straight before looking at her and trying to keep the fear from his voice as he said, “Did you see what I just did?” 

No matter how well he hid his worry, Audrey could see it, which was the only reason that she wasn’t upset about his flippancy and she could see the barely concealed terror in his eyes at the realization of what he’d done. Another glance at the water showed Dwight surfacing and swimming towards the shore so she breathed a sigh of relief on that front and gave Duke her full attention. Fear over a newly discovered trouble was old hat to her, but seeing that fear in Duke’s face of all people gutted her. “You need to show me what’s in that box,” she said, more bluntly than she normally would in her efforts to keep her emotions from hurting him more. It didn’t even dawn on her until after she said it that he might consider it personal, being his father’s and all, but he didn’t hesitate to hand it to her before heading into the cabin. She hesitated a minute before following him. She could at least go through it and try to figure this thing out with him there and she didn’t think he needed to be alone right now. 

Duke paced the cabin, trying to bend a crowbar, while Audrey went through the box, checking all the weapons. When he finally realized that he wasn’t going to bend it, he huffed. “Well whatever it was, it didn’t last very long.”

“It happened right after you cut Dwight,” Audrey pointed out, not sure if he realized that in all the commotion. 

“Is there anything in that box that might actually tell us why?” Duke asked frustrated. 

“Well, maybe this ledger? There’s some names, there’s some dates, hundreds of years old…Maybe it’s a Crocker family history,” she said gladly letting go as Duke yanked it out of her hands. It belonged to his family after all and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t share what he found with her. Unless it was just /too/ private, in which case it was none of her business. She watched as Duke flipped through it, and when she saw him slow down and get a confused look on his face, she asked, “Did you find something?” 

“It’s just these last few pages, I…I feel like I recognize the writing. It’s probably just because it’s as bad as mine, but…” he trailed off as he realized what that meant and sat heavily, not even noticing how close he was to Audrey as she leaned up to read over his shoulder. “My father wrote this.”

“Duke, if you’re reading this, then I haven’t survived,” she read aloud before getting a confused look. “Wait, I thought…I thought that your dad died in an accident?” 

“Yeah, I’m starting to think not,” he said wryly as he turned to look at her. 

Their eyes met for a long moment before they both turned back to the book and she continued reading. “You are my son. You are my heir. It’s up to you to finish my work. You must…kill her,” she finished worriedly. Duke didn’t say a word as he turned the page and both of their eyes widened as they saw the pictures of Audrey. She was the first to find words. “This must be why your father was looking for Lucy Ripley. He was trying to find me.”

“How did he even know you?” Duke asked in almost a panic. The very idea of killing Audrey was unthinkable. 

“More importantly, why did he want you to kill me?” she laid it all on the table. If she had learned one thing with all this it was that hiding from the truth and avoiding things just made them worse. She realized at that point that she was basically leaning on him and her chin was on his shoulder, so she shifted back nervously. 

“I’m not gonna /kill/ you,” he said hurt, noticing her motion. 

“I know,” Audrey said seriously. “I never thought for a second that you would.” 

Duke took a deep breath, realizing the truth of that. There was an entire table of weapons right in front of them, plus her own gun on her hip and she hadn’t so much as twitched towards any of them. He still couldn’t help but point out, “But you thought I would kill that little girl.” 

Audrey moved over and sat next to him. “No, I didn’t, Duke. I should never have said that. I know better. I was just…I felt so alone. I was so sure that I did the right thing and then Nathan was pissed and then you were pissed, and I just thought…if there were two people I could count on to back me up it was you two, but you didn’t, and maybe you were right. Maybe I shouldn’t have done it. But I was just hurt and I lashed out. You didn’t deserve that.”

Duke snorted derisively. “Maybe I did. I don’t know what I would have done…” That was what scared him the most. That he couldn’t be sure. 

“I do,” Audrey said seriously. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that you would have saved that little girl. Probably not the way I did, but you wouldn’t have…/couldn’t/ have…stood aside and let her be killed any more than you could kill me.” 

“How do you know?” Duke asked almost desperately. 

“Because I know you, Duke. Better than I know myself apparently,” she made a joke to lighten the mood, getting a huff of a laugh from him. “You are a good man. No matter what anyone else thinks,” she moved back over and leaned against the back of his shoulder again, letting her chin rest there as her hand went to his arm. “Don’t ever let anyone, especially me, convince you otherwise. I’m sorry.” 

Duke’s lips twitched in a smile as he leaned his head against hers and let his hand rest over hers on his arm, giving a grateful squeeze. “I think you need new glasses,” he joked. 

She chuckled and turned to kiss his cheek. “If you say so.” They sat in silence for a few more minutes before she said, “You’ll be okay?” 

“Yeah,” Duke let out a heavy breath, more than grateful for her presence. She always had this way of keeping him steady when he was anything but. “Now that I know what…whatever that was…feels like, I’ll be careful if it happens again.” 

“That’s not what I meant,” she said wryly. 

“I know,” Duke said with a smile giving her hand another squeeze before he got up. “I’m good. But you’re still welcome to stay for dinner if you want.” 

“I am pretty hungry. I didn’t exactly get a chance to eat today,” Audrey replied, not thinking anything of it. They had dinner together regularly. Breakfast too. Sometimes even lunch. She had often wondered if Duke would cook for anyone that sat still long enough. Or maybe it was just her. Hell, the first morning they met he cooked her breakfast after saving her life. That kinda set the tone for everything after. 

When Duke headed for the kitchen…or galley would probably be the correct term since they were on a boat…Audrey leaned back in the booth, spending a little more time looking over the weapons. The guns had clearly been well maintained before being stashed in a box inside the hull of a boat for almost three decades, but they could use some cleaning. She set those aside and moved on to the knives, admiring the gems and detail work on some of them and wondering if they might be more than just decoration. In this town, you never knew. She was just starting the general perusal of the shurikens and more specialized weapons when Duke came back with two plates. 

He set a plate in front of her as he said, “Wasn’t planning on making up anything big tonight, but I had some steaks thawed, so I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s perfect,” she grinned. “Thanks, Duke.” She dug in with gusto. Duke really was an amazing cook and always made her steak just the way she liked it. About halfway between medium and medium well. Restaurants always had trouble with that. The mashed potatoes with cheese and bacon and the steamed asparagus were just as good as she had come to expect from him too. As someone who didn’t cook at all, she was always amazed when he managed to whip up an incredible meal in no time. The meal was spent in their normal easy conversation, avoiding all the heavy subjects and just letting the stress of the day evaporate. Once they were done, Duke went to grab her plate. “I can clean up,” she offered, just like she always did. 

Just like /he/ always did, Duke waved her off. “I got it.” 

“Okay. I should probably head home and get some sleep anyway. It’s been a long few days. Goodnight, Duke.”

“Night,” Duke said with a smile as he headed back towards the galley with the empty plates. 

The next morning, Audrey was up and at the station early only to find that apparently people were seeing ghosts. It was about mid-afternoon when the investigation led them to the cemetery and Audrey immediately noticed Duke crouched at a gravestone and headed that way, even as Nathan tried to call her back, clearly irritated. “Duke,” she called. She could see the weariness on his face and also the hesitation that said he was trying to decide whether to talk or walk away. Apparently he decided to talk and shared the basics about his day, ending with burying the weapons box that he’d just finished doing. 

“Let me get this straight…you can /end/ a trouble?” Nathan asked incredulously. 

Duke raised a hand in emphasis as he said, “Just have to…kill someone to do it. Try not to forget that part.” 

When Nathan went to say something else, Audrey shook her head at him. This was not something that Duke would want to hash out right now, so Nathan changed tactics and got his head back to the case. “Wait…wasn’t your father buried at Seaside?” he remembered. 

“Seaside is eroding. They moved him here about a year ago,” Duke said wearily, wondering why the hell it mattered. Knowing Haven though, it would. 

“Wait, who moved him?” Audrey asked, getting an idea. 

Duke rolled his eyes. “Somebody from this cemetery, I guess?” It wasn’t like he was all that involved other than signing off on it. He definitely didn’t go around introducing himself to the gravediggers. That would be creepy. 

“Need to get ahold of the caretaker, find out who buried who. Maybe that’s our link,” Nathan said pulling out his phone and walking away to make the call. 

Audrey was trying to decide whether Duke felt like talking right now or not but he beat her to the punch. “Do you ever wonder…why you’re here?” Duke asked her. 

“No, I mean, that’s the one thing I don’t wonder about anymore,” she answered. “I’m here to help the troubled.”

“Yeah, but doesn’t it…doesn’t it /bother/ you…that you never really solve anything,” he asked, desperate for some kind of guidance here. “I mean, a week goes by, a month, twenty years, whatever…the troubles keep coming back, and…people keep dying.” 

“I have no alternative,” she said pointedly. 

“But what if you did?” Duke asked with a sigh. 

Audrey could see how much he was struggling with this and she wished that there was something she could say to help him. She really did. Before she could respond though, Nathan was back with the news that the same person buried them all. She was about to make a suggestion when both Nathan and Duke’s attention was drawn by something she could see. Learning that it was the chief had Audrey pushing Nathan to go talk to him, but only part of the reason was for Nathan’s sake. She needed to continue her conversation with Duke too, so it helped that Duke went with her to pick up Kyle. 

Once they were in Duke’s truck, Audrey said, “I wish I could tell you what to do here, Duke. I really do.” 

“You’re a cop, Audrey. And the trouble helper. If anyone should be able to help me make sense of this, it’s you,” Duke said despairingly. 

“I know,” she admitted. “And yeah, I can see a lot of situations where this could be a bad thing, but I can also see some where it’s not. There’s a lot of grey area here, Duke. Then, of course, there’s the fact that every time you kill someone it gets easier the next time and the next and it’s so easy to just shut everything off and fall into somewhere you can’t come back from.”

“Like my father did. And his father. And probably his father. And all the way back. I come from a long line of serial killers,” Duke said disgustedly. 

Audrey reached over and put a hand on his arm. “You’re not them, Duke. I can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you that I trust you. I trust you to know where to draw the line. It’s up to you to decide what you can and can’t live with. And I hope you trust me enough to know that you can talk to me. That I will help you come back from the edge if you feel yourself starting to fall, no matter what you decide.”

“I do,” Duke breathed out, glancing over at her before looking back at the road. She was probably the only person in the world that he could let himself trust. Otherwise he would never have even mentioned his dilemma to her. “I won’t let myself become them. I’m not gonna use this thing.” 

“Okay,” Audrey agreed, glad that he’d come to that decision. It could definitely be a slippery slope and she didn’t want to see him fall down it.


	2. Chapter 2

After all that talk about trust, Duke felt like a jerk for hiding the fact that he saw the rev as he sent her in to check the house. He didn’t know how she would feel about someone that she had personally killed coming back though. If it turned out to be important enough, he would tell her, but she didn’t need that on her shoulders. Once she was far enough away, Duke walked up to the rev and said, “You better not be here to hurt her.” 

“I got more important things to do,” the rev told him with a smirk. 

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Duke asked, keeping an eye out for Audrey coming back. 

“I’ve come back for you.”

“Right, my father told me about his job…Not interested,” Duke said with a sneer. 

“Your father’s here? Good. Come with me,” the rev ordered. 

“You know what? I think I’m gonna let the two of you catch up. Maybe you could hit the senior center together.”

“Duke…people followed me when I was alive. Think what they’ll do for me now,” the rev threatened. When Duke scoffed and went to head inside, he said again, “Come with me…or I’ll take my revenge on Audrey Parker.” Duke hesitated for a moment, and almost called out to Audrey, but stopped himself. The rev was right about one thing. His followers had been fanatical before he rose from the dead. One word from him and Audrey would be dead. 

When Audrey came out and Duke was gone, she was more than a little worried, but there were no signs of a struggle at least. If someone had taken him he would have fought back. If they caught him by surprise there would be drag marks or scuffs. That meant that he left willingly. That didn’t necessarily mean that he wasn’t in trouble though. She had to remind herself that Duke could take care of himself, so she called Nathan to come pick her up so they could find Kyle. 

Audrey and Nathan followed Kyle’s wife and found some sort of camp in the woods with what seemed to be Reverend Driscoll’s men. “What is Duke doing here?” Audrey whispered, so distracted that they were caught off guard with guns to their heads before being marched into the camp. 

“You tell me what’s happening or I’m out of here,” Duke snapped at Driscoll. 

“Take a look,” the rev said smugly jerking his head towards the barn. 

“Oh my god, what have you done?” Duke asked appalled as he saw all the bodies laying on the floor. 

“They’re not dead. Just unconscious,” he assured Duke. “Couldn’t risk their…curses…causing us problems.” 

“You are insane,” Duke said heatedly. “All of you. You’re all insane! I am /not/ going to stand here and let you burn all these people.” 

“Oh they’re not gonna burn. You’re gonna save them,” the reverend told him. When someone came up and put a knife in his hand, Duke snatched it and started waving it, trying to get everyone away from him and figure out what the hell he was going to do now. 

“Duke!” Audrey called as they were dragged up. “What are you doing?” she asked carefully. She needed him to not lose his head right now. They all had guns and he was just waving a knife around. 

“You’re working with the rev?” Nathan accused. 

Audrey shot a quick glare at Nathan that he didn’t notice as Duke protested. “What? No…of course not.” Duke looked from the knife to the rev and back to Audrey, glad that he could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe that at least, even if Nathan did and he dropped the knife to the ground. Even if it was his only weapon, it would hardly do him much good right now anyway. 

Audrey watched as they convinced Kyle that he was the one causing this, and Kyle started begging Duke to kill him to save his unborn child. She couldn’t see what the ghosts were saying to Duke, but he was getting more and more frazzled and she could see him coming apart. “No, we can stop this,” she assured him. 

“Don’t listen to her,” Simon told his son.

“She’s a liar,” the reverend added. 

Audrey could see the moment that Duke pulled himself together and made a decision, but she didn’t see or hear what prompted it. He stood straighter and looked back as he said a clear, “No,” before turning back to her. “She’s my friend.” 

“Your friend killed your grandfather. Her name was Sarah then,” Simon told him. “She was Lucy when she killed me.”

“Duke…put the knife down,” Audrey said, trying to bring his attention to the fact that he was holding it again since he was paying attention to the ghosts again. 

“Now she’s called Audrey. And she /will/ kill you,” Simon kept going. 

“No. A tattooed man is supposed to kill me,” Duke argued, not taking his eyes off Audrey’s even as he was clearly hearing the ghosts. Audrey figured out then what they were telling him, and wondered if he clued her in on purpose or not. She doubted it. He clearly wasn’t completely with the program. She felt bad for him being yanked in different directions by so many different people, but she was glad that he had so much faith in her at least. She saw him shake his head and turn to walk away, but then Kyle rushed forward and grabbed Duke’s wrist, slamming the knife into his own gut. 

“No!” Duke cried as he froze. When Kyle started to fall, he let go of the knife in horror, looking at the blood splattered on his hand before it sunk in. He felt the same incredible rush flow through him as when he cut Dwight and he both loved and hated it. He hated it /because/ he loved it. He felt the urge to kill again welling up inside him and ruthlessly squashed it down, seeing Nathan circling him with a look of confusion and disgust, but he couldn’t deal with that right now so he shoved that away too. 

Nathan was glad when the chief showed up and followed the conversation between him and Simon, nodding when he told Nathan to take care of Audrey. He realized that they were telling him that Duke was a threat to her. He had to protect her from Duke and he swore to do just that. 

Audrey missed the entire exchange as Kyle died, but took full advantage of the distraction to get a gun and get the drop on them, placing them all under arrest. She was more than worried when Duke still hadn’t moved or spoken, not even to get out of the way of the gun she was waving around. Once the scene was under control, Duke was gone. She wanted to go after him, but she had too much to do here first. It was late by the time they were done and she headed home to change. She was just on her way back out to find Duke when she was surprised by a taser gun and that was the last thing she knew. 

Nathan wavered for a little while before deciding that he needed to talk to Audrey. She needed to know that Duke was a threat to her. She couldn’t see or hear the ghosts. She would be completely caught off guard. She had been bugging him about what the chief said anyway and this was something that he /could/ tell her. Unfortunately when he got to her apartment the door was wide open and she was gone. There were signs of a struggle everywhere and when he found one of Duke’s necklaces, he snatched it up and headed immediately for the Rouge. 

Duke was sitting there, drowning himself in the bottle trying to forget everything about this awful day when Nathan came barging in. “Where is she?” 

Duke didn’t know what was going on, but that look on Nathan’s face seriously worried him so he got up to be in a better position to defend himself if it came to it. “Where’s who?” he asked confused. 

“Audrey,” Nathan snapped. “What did you do with her?” 

“She’s missing?” Duke asked worriedly. When Nathan just kept staring him down, he said, “Nathan, I swear. I didn’t do anything to her.” 

“You were in her apartment,” Nathan accused. 

“No, I wasn’t,” Duke said evenly. Not recently at least. When Nathan pulled a necklace out that looked a lot like one that Duke always wore, he knew that he had to talk Nathan down before things got out of hand here. He doubted that Nathan would give him a chance to prove it wasn’t his…if he could. It wasn’t like he kept his boat locked up that tight for the most part and he hadn’t worn that particular necklace in a few weeks so for all he knew it could be his. He started backing up slowly, holding his hand in front of him. “Now think…/think/…Why would I hurt Audrey?” 

“You have five seconds,” Nathan said coldly, already reaching for his gun. 

Duke had just about had enough. It was bad enough being accused of every awful thing in the world, but today had been worse than usual. Now he was being accused of hurting Audrey of all people. He would die before he hurt her. “Nathan, if I was going to hurt her…I wouldn’t be waiting for you,” he tried to point out only to be attacked before the words even left his lips. Once he hit the floor, Nathan’s gun was pointed at his head, but Duke kept his cool and slowly reached for his own gun taped to the bottom of the booth he was laying next to. He was glad that he was paranoid enough to have over a dozen guns hidden all over the boat. His cool rapidly left him when he caught sight of Nathan’s new tattoo. The one that was supposed to kill him. He…very briefly…considered the fact that Audrey could help Nathan kill him, like his father predicted, but threw that thought from his mind. She wouldn’t. 

Duke managed to distract Nathan enough to knock the gun away and go for his own, but he didn’t quite get it and the fight was on. Unfortunately, the fact that Nathan couldn’t feel pain worked against Duke and he found himself being choked out on the floor soon enough. Just as he thought he was a goner…that the tattooed man was going to kill him after all…some of Nathan’s blood dripped onto his forehead and powered him up, giving Duke the strength to push him away. Duke forced the bloodlust back down before he and Nathan dove for the gun at the same time. Thankfully, some sort of magnetizing trouble kicked in about then and sucked the gun, along with everything metal in the room, straight to the ceiling. It took a minute to convince Nathan that he wasn’t doing it but then it was right back to the main point. “Where is Audrey?!” Nathan yelled. 

“I told you man, I don’t know,” Duke said exasperated. “I wish I did.” When he saw Nathan start to falter in his insistence that it was Duke, he felt free to ask, “What the hell is going on, man? You show up…with that thing on your arm…what is that supposed to mean?” 

“If you’re supposed to die at the hands of somebody with this tattoo, I need to be on the approved list,” Nathan raged. 

“Nathan…I am /not/ the /enemy/!” Duke growled. 

“Your father, your grandfather, his father before that…they all killed troubled people to wipe out their curses. You don’t think any of them had any doubts? Or you just think you’re special?”

About that time the magnetization ended, and when Duke held out his hand, the gun fell right into it. “I’m gonna go with special,” he quipped. When Nathan rushed at him, Duke raised the gun to stop him. “Nathan,” he warned, prompting the detective to back up a few steps. “Whoever took Audrey, they planted that whistle in her apartment so you would find it and come after me. They /want/ us to kill each other. We are playing right into their hands.” He gave Nathan a minute to calm down before lowering the gun and spinning it, holding it out grip first for Nathan to take. “I’m not my father,” he said earnestly, eyes begging Nathan to believe him. 

At least now Nathan was on the right track and letting Duke help find Audrey. They kept chasing down lead after lead, but getting nowhere until the next night when Audrey managed to call Nathan and they rushed over there. Duke was kicking himself. They had been in this very building that morning. She had been right there and they hadn’t even known. Too worried about the nutjob and his aliens to actually search the place. He and Nathan split up once they were inside and Duke was the first to find her. And narrowly avoid being sliced in half by the scythe that Audrey was swinging. He caught her arm before it hit him and she screamed. He grabbed her and covered her mouth as she fought him. “Shh. Shh. Audrey, it’s me…it’s me,” he whispered in her ear. 

“Oh Duke, thank god,” she relaxed in his arms, suddenly feeling completely safe as she tried to catch her breath.

“Audrey!” Nathan called from the doorway as he came in. 

She let go of Duke and rushed to Nathan, hugging him tightly, missing the look on Duke’s face. She was glad to see him too and he was the one that she needed to tell. “He’s still here. I heard him moving around and I didn’t hear a car leave and I’m pretty sure that he has Rosiline…” she tried to get out everything he needed to know as quickly as possible, adrenaline still coursing through her system. Duke was the first to smell it and they rushed outside to find Rosilin burning. Unfortunately before anything else could be done, they had a dangerous trouble to deal with and by the time that was handled, the killer was long gone. 

When Nathan went to get a blanket for Audrey, who was still pretty out of it, from his truck, Duke followed him, leaning against the front of the ambulance. “Hey Nathan…explain to me the difference between killing a man…and convincing him to crawl up his own ass…because I’m at a loss.” He didn’t see how convincing someone to get themselves ‘abducted’ by their own trouble was any better. 

“Wesley /chose/ to walk into that light,” Nathan argued. 

“Oh come on. You didn’t nudge him a little?” Duke pointed out, sauntering towards Nathan mockingly. “I mean…you said he was crazy.”

“And what did you say? Why not aliens,” Nathan said with a smirk. “Maybe he’s not dead. Maybe he comes back after the troubles are over with some good stories.” 

Duke shook his head disgustedly. “Whatever helps you sleep at night Chief,” he drawled as he turned to walk away. 

“Actually the only thing that bothers me is that you wanted to kill him in the first place,” Nathan accused. 

“No…don’t turn this around, Nathan,” Duke said incredulously. He never said a word about killing anyone. 

“I saw it in your face Duke,” Nathan said evenly. “You can tell the world that you’re not like your father…but when the chips are down you are what you are.”

Duke’s face twisted into a conglomeration of disgusted, angry, and incredulous before he just said, “you’re a hypocrite, Nathan.” Just because he was prepared to do it if there was no other way didn’t mean that he wanted to. If it came down to the last second and it was one life or the whole town, then he would have done what he had to do. And no matter what Nathan said, his solution was likely far worse than death. These aliens or whatever responded to Wesley’s thoughts and beliefs and he had been terrified of them. And now he was going to spend who knew how long living out his greatest fears if he still existed at all. And Nathan had the nerve to call him a monster. 

Audrey watched worriedly and as Nathan came back she asked, “Is Duke okay?”

“He’s fine. Someone should be taking care of you right now,” he told her, helping her to sit down and handing her badge to her. After a conversation with Vince and Dave, Audrey was chomping at the bit to go gravedigging tonight, but Nathan promised they would go tomorrow if she would let him take her home. 

Once there, Nathan wanted to stay with her and make sure she was okay, but she sent him home. She didn’t know what went on between him and Duke, but it worried her. Duke left without even checking if she was okay. That wasn’t like him. She wanted to know what Nathan said to him. She took a shower and changed into new clean nightclothes as she waited for Nathan to drive off before heading down to the Cape Rouge. She could see light still on, so she knew he was still up. He couldn’t have been back long as it was. She headed straight in, like she always did, looking for him and found him padding through the sitting area wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. “Audrey? What are you doing here? Are you okay?” he asked worriedly, moving towards her hand putting his hands on the sides of her shoulders to look her over as if to check. 

“I’m okay,” she told him with a smile. “Are you?” 

“What? Of course, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” Duke asked confused. 

“I saw you and Nathan arguing. You didn’t look fine,” she replied. 

“You were just kidnapped and tortured and you’re worried about /me/? Because of an argument?” he asked incredulously. 

“Just because I’m hurt doesn’t mean I can’t worry about you, Duke,” she pointed out. 

“Okay, fair enough,” Duke admitted with a nod. “But right this minute you’re more important. I’ve been held prisoner and tortured often enough to know that if you slept at all last night it wasn’t much or well. You need to rest. We can talk tomorrow.” 

Audrey hesitated a minute. She was kinda dead on her feet, especially after her shower. She didn’t know if she could handle going back to her apartment right now. “Can I…stay here? I can sleep on your couch…”

“Not a chance,” Duke shook his head. “If you’re staying you’re taking the bed. /I’ll/ take the couch.” 

“I can’t let you give up your own bed,” Audrey argued. 

“Then we go up to your apartment and you sleep in /your/ bed and I’ll sleep on your couch,” Duke offered a compromise. He got the fact that she didn’t want to be alone tonight and couldn’t really blame her. 

Audrey bit her lip in indecision as she considered that. She could see by his face that he wasn’t going to budge on the options so she just had to decide if she could handle sleeping in her apartment tonight at all, Duke or not. “Okay. I’ll take your bed,” she finally decided. She felt a lot safer on Duke’s boat than she did at home right now. Not only was it /not/ where she was abducted from, but it was Duke’s. He knew every inch of this boat, every sound it made, every motion. If anything happened, he would be the first to know. He could even take them out to sea in an emergency, not that she thought one might come up where that would be the best solution, but having that mobility available seemed important right now for some reason she couldn’t quite place. 

“Okay,” Duke nodded, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her towards his room. He helped her into bed and tucked the blankets around her, unable to keep himself from pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Goodnight, Audrey,” he whispered. 

“Night, Duke,” she mumbled sleepily, finally feeling safe enough to let herself drift off. 

Duke smiled softly, brushing a hand down her cheek before grabbing one of his spare blankets and stretching out on the couch on the other side of the room. Maybe he should see about getting a bed for the spare room here. He never really saw a point before, but at least she would have someplace to sleep in these situations without the argument about the bed. 

The next morning, Duke, as was his habit, was up with the sun and headed for the galley to start breakfast. It was almost finished and he had just put the coffee on when he heard Nathan yelling his name. He stuck his head out and shushed him, and Nathan followed him back, hissing out, “Audrey is missing again.”

“No. She’s not,” Duke said, knowing this wouldn’t go over well, but what else could he do. “She’s still sleeping right through there…”

“She’s what?” Nathan snapped. “I swear to god, Duke, if you took advantage of her while she was vulnerable…”

“Jesus, Nathan. What do you take me for?” Duke asked incredulously. “She was worried about sleeping in her apartment last night and came down here. /I/ slept on the /couch/. I’m gonna change her locks today and redo the window locks just to be on the safe side, but in the meantime, she was more comfortable here.” Duke put the breakfast on plates, reluctantly grabbing a third one for Nathan, and putting her plate in the microwave to keep it warm until she woke up. 

Nathan looked at Duke suspiciously before getting up and going to look in on Audrey. Just to be sure she was okay. He missed the roll of Duke’s eyes as he creaked open the door, seeing her wrapped up in a pile of blankets in the center of the bed. He turned to look, seeing that the couch at least /looked/ slept on, so he headed back to the galley and gave a nod of almost thanks for the breakfast as they sat down to eat. It was a stilted meal, with neither of them speaking to each other, but thankfully it wasn’t long before Audrey padded in, still half-asleep with a fluffy blanket wrapped around her. 

She plopped down at the table, barely opening her eyes, but smiling when she felt a cup of coffee pressed into her hand. “Thanks Duke,” she mumbled. 

“Not Duke,” Nathan said trying to keep the irritation out of his voice as Duke was across the room grabbing her plate from the microwave. 

“Oh! Nathan,” Audrey said, suddenly much more awake, nodding at Duke with a sheepish smile as he set her plate in front of her. “What are you doing here?” she asked him. 

“You didn’t think that I would panic when I went to pick you up to find you gone?” Nathan asked incredulously. 

“I didn’t think about it. I wasn’t planning to sleep so late,” she shrugged, feeling bad about worrying him so much. 

“You needed it,” Duke said gently. “You snore by the way.”

“I do not,” she laughed, flicking a piece of egg at him. 

“Whatever you say,” Duke grinned, ducking the flying food. 

Nathan frowned at their playful demeanors and the way they seemed so familiar with each other. He had known they were friends, but he hadn’t realized how close they were. They both seemed like him cooking her breakfast and making coffee for her was a regular thing. He desperately needed to change the subject, and hopefully get out of here soon. “Were you still wanting to go to the graveyard today?”

“The graveyard?” Duke asked. 

“There’s some question of whether the Colorado Kid is still alive or not. We were gonna check his grave,” Audrey told Duke before turning to Nathan. “Just give me a few minutes to finish breakfast and I’ll go change and we can head out.”

“When you get back, if I’m not at the Gull already, I’ll be here so you can pick up your new keys,” Duke told her. 

“New keys?” she asked confused. 

“I’m changing all the locks,” Duke explained. 

“He didn’t break in,” Audrey told him. “I opened the door. I was walking out when he showed up.” 

“Still. No sense taking chances,” Duke told her in a tone that brooked no argument. 

“He’s right…for once,” Nathan muttered the last under his breath. “If he’s willing to do it, you should let him.”

“Well I am the landlord. It’s kinda my job to do this kind of stuff. It’s important to me too that she be safe there, you know,” Duke said offended. 

“Thank you, Duke,” Audrey said firmly with a look at Nathan to drop it. “I appreciate it.” When Duke reached for her now empty plate, she said, “I can clean up.”

“I got it,” Duke told her, the words almost coming by rote for both of them at this point. 

Nathan walked her back up to her apartment, frowning as she tossed Duke’s blanket on her couch. “You brought that?” he finally noticed. 

“I know you can’t feel it, but it’s still cold out there this early in the morning. I wasn’t walking all the way here without it,” she chuckled motioning him to turn around while she changed. Normally she would have kicked him out, but she wasn’t going to complain about not being alone today. “Duke can grab it while he’s changing the locks or I’ll take it back to him later.” 

“How much time do you and Duke spend together?” Nathan couldn’t help but ask after the display this morning. 

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “He’s my friend and my landlord and he lives right over there so a lot I guess. Why?” 

“You can’t trust him,” Nathan tried to tell her. 

“You can’t tell me who I can and can’t trust, Nathan,” she said irritated. “I /do/ trust him. Deal with it.” She walked back over in his line of sight. “We leaving?” 

“Yeah,” Nathan sighed, deciding to wait until they were in the truck before continuing the conversation. Once they were on the road, he said, “I know you couldn’t hear or see the ghosts, but you need to know what they said. Lucy killed Duke’s father. Sarah killed Duke’s grandfather. If you don’t kill him, then he’s going to kill you. It’s who he is.”

“No. He won’t. And neither will I,” Audrey said firmly. “I know that he was ‘supposed’ to kill me. I /have/ known. I was with him when he found the note from his father telling him so. I didn’t know that my other lives killed his father and grandfather, but it doesn’t matter.” 

“You really think it doesn’t matter to him?” Nathan asked incredulously. 

“I /know/ it doesn’t. Because even after he knew that, he helped you save me. He took me in last night when I needed him…”

“You could have come to me,” Nathan said hurt. “You told me you were fine and to go home. I would have stayed. Or you could have come to my place instead.”

“But this way I was right across from my apartment to come change this morning. If I had stayed with you we would have had to come back here, pack me a bag, and then go to your place. Besides, I didn’t realize how much it was bothering me until I was alone up there and Duke was closer,” Audrey explained. “Now I’m done talking about Duke with you. You don’t like him, you don’t trust him, fine. But don’t try to tell me who to be friends with. Deal?” 

“Okay, Parker,” Nathan sighed in defeat. He realized that if he kept pushing he was going to end up pushing her away. It worried him greatly that she trusted Duke so much, especially now, but obviously she wasn’t going to listen to him. He would just have to hope that he was close enough to mitigate the damage when Duke proved himself untrustworthy to her. “But there’s one more thing you should know at least, even if it doesn’t change your mind.”

“What?” Audrey sighed. 

“Last night…I saw it in his face…he was thinking of killing Wesley.”

“That’s what you were arguing about?” Audrey asked. “I would be more surprised if you told me that he wasn’t. The lives of the whole town were on the line. If it came down to it, I wouldn’t have blamed him. The fact that he didn’t proves that he only would if there was no other choice.” 

“If you say so,” Nathan grumbled. He completely disagreed, but there was no point in starting an argument with her over it. The events of this morning brought up something that had been on his mind that he had to get out now. “Can I ask…before you went to see Lucy…you kissed me…”

“I’m sorry,” Audrey winced. “I was just so happy and grateful and I had been so on edge that my emotions got the better of me. I shouldn’t have done that.” 

“I don’t mind that you did,” Nathan said hesitantly. 

Audrey took a second to formulate an answer for that which wouldn’t give him the wrong idea without being too blunt. “Good. I’m glad that it didn’t mess up our friendship,” Audrey said with a smile. “I like being more than just your partner.” She hoped that was clear enough. 

Nathan gave a tight smile and nodded at her. “Me too,” he said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. It seemed that he wouldn’t have to disregard his father’s warning about complicating things between them after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Once they got to the graveyard it took a few hours to dig up the grave. Finding the note in her handwriting was jarring, but she took a few pictures of it to puzzle over later. By the time Nathan drove her back to the Gull it was almost dinnertime. They were on their way up, when Audrey heard her name being called and turned to see the manager heading towards her. “Lisa. What’s wrong?” 

“Lindsey,” the woman corrected her amusedly. It was almost a joke around the place how often she got names wrong. 

“Lindsey. Sorry,” Audrey winced, elbowing Nathan playfully as he snickered. 

“Duke said to let you know he had to head out for something important. He left this for you,” she handed Audrey a small envelope. 

“Okay. Thanks Lindsey. I appreciate it. Did he say when he’d be back?” Usually when he was going to be gone longer than a day he let her know. 

“He just said late,” she shrugged. Audrey thanked her again and headed up the stairs as she opened the envelope and four keys fell out. Thankfully Duke had labeled them. Front deadbolt, front knob, side deadbolt, and side knob. She unlocked the door and let her and Nathan in before sitting at the table and changing out the keys on her keychain, setting her current ones aside. There were only two of those though. Last time the same key opened both locks on each door. Apparently Duke had gone for a little more security this time. 

“You’re not gonna throw those away?” Nathan asked confused when she just set them on the edge of the counter. 

“I don’t know if Duke kept the locks to use for something else, so no,” Audrey gave a one armed shrug. “I’m gonna head downstairs for dinner if you want to come.” She made sure to keep it casual after their conversation earlier and could tell that he wasn’t reading too much into the invitation. At least she hoped so. After a friendly dinner, she assured Nathan that she would be fine by herself now that the locks were changed and Duke had apparently cleaned up the mess from the abduction. Nathan still walked her upstairs, but left once she was inside. 

Audrey was asleep before the Rouge pulled back up to the dock, but she had just woken up the next morning when there was a knock at her door and she smiled knowing that she wouldn’t have to brew her own coffee this morning. After her scare, she did pull back the curtain and look before opening the door at least. She took the cup of hot coffee from Duke, motioning to sit on the balcony. It was a nice morning. She sat in her chair with her legs curled under her while Duke leaned against the railing as she updated him on the coffin and the note she left herself. He sat down next to her to look over the file she’d put together as they tried to figure it out, but a noise from around the corner startled them both. 

“You expecting somebody?” Duke asked worriedly. When she shook her head, he put his cup down, grabbing the screwdriver he’d left on the table yesterday, and gave her knee a comforting pat as he got up and headed towards the corner, ready for anything. 

Audrey wished she had her gun with her, but it was inside. It ended up not being needed anyway, thankfully. It was just Nathan. When they saw him they all relaxed, and Duke tossed the screwdriver up changing to the normal grip instead of being ready to stab with it and a quippy, “Morning chief.” 

“What are you doing here?” Nathan asked Duke suspiciously. 

“In case you forgot, Audrey got abducted…I’m just checking in,” Duke said with a roll of his eyes as he set the screwdriver back down and picked up his coffee. “We got to chatting, there were coffees, scented candles, girl talk,” he joked. 

“You told him everything?” Nathan asked Audrey worriedly. “About the hunter?” 

When Audrey nodded, looking worried about how Nathan was going to take it, Duke was more than a little irritated. He had no idea what happened to make Audrey almost afraid to be friendly with him around Nathan, but he didn’t like it. “Yeah, we’re friends. Is that a problem?” he asked confrontationally. 

“Come on,” Nathan said as though it should be obvious. “Your dad? You ever think that maybe you’re the hunter, Duke?” 

Duke and Audrey looked at each other and Duke noticed that she seemed interested in his thoughts, but not accusing, unlike Nathan. “No,” he said clearly turning back to Nathan with a firm, “Never.” 

“Well I guess we won’t know until you kill somebody,” Nathan said coldly. 

Audrey wasn’t sure whether she should step in and defend Duke or if that would just make it worse. At the dejected look on Duke’s face, she was about to before Nathan told her, “We’ve got a ten eleven call. We gotta go.” 

“You can finish your coffee,” she told Duke. “Just lock the doors when you’re done, please, Duke?” 

“Yeah,” Duke muttered with a nod as she headed out, but Nathan didn’t follow. 

“Stay away from her,” Nathan pointed a finger in warning. 

Duke scoffed and shook his head amusedly. “No, but…I’ll tell you what I will do, Nate. I’m gonna find out who this hunter really is. I’m gonna actually do something to help Audrey.” 

Nathan glared at him for a minute before storming off, stopping short when he saw Audrey glaring at him from about halfway down the stairs. She turned and headed for the truck without a word. Once they were on the road, Nathan said, “Audrey…”

“No,” she cut him off angrily. “Telling him to stay away from me isn’t any better than telling me to stay away from him. You need to get it through your head that you don’t get to choose my friends for me. You don’t get a say over who can come over to my place and when. You don’t get to tell me who I can and can’t tell about /my/ life. The Colorado Kid is not a police investigation. It’s about me. Which means that /I/ decide who to tell. That…up there…was out of line.” 

“Look, I’m sorry, but…”

“But nothing,” Audrey snapped. “I value your friendship, Nathan. I really do. But if you keep trying to control me and my life like this…it’s not going to work.” 

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Nathan said tensely. It wasn’t like he didn’t have his reasons, but she just wouldn’t hear them. There was too much she didn’t know about Duke and he didn’t know how to tell her now without her completely shutting him out. He should have said more from the start. When he first noticed them being friendly. He just hadn’t realized how close they were. 

Later that day, when Duke and Dwight ended up getting a guy they were after trapped in Dwight’s truck Nathan had to at least consider that, at least for the moment, Duke was resisting the lure of his trouble. There was no telling how long it would last, but the way he jumped into Audrey’s place when the guy attacked and the way he went into almost a panic when the blood got on him said something. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t become a monster. It just meant that he wasn’t /yet/. 

Duke was glad that at least that incident had gotten Dwight on his side. It at least got some cooperation out of Vince and Dave and gave him a chance to find out about the hunter. He spent most of the afternoon turning it over in his mind, trying to figure out how to tell Audrey, and he was actually sitting on the bottom of her steps, trying to get up the nerve to go do just that when she came down. “Hey…a dog,” he said in surprise when he saw it. 

“Yeah. My dog. Cookie. I think I’m gonna keep him. It’s not against the lease is it? Because I don’t think technically we have a lease,” she joked. 

“No, it’s not the lease,” Duke interrupted. “I need to talk to you.”

“Sure,” Audrey said confused at what could be so important as to have him this on edge. Her attempts to lighten the mood usually worked with him. 

“If it were me, I’d want to know,” Duke said cryptically, still trying to find the right words. 

“What?” 

“The Hunter…it’s not a person. It’s…a meteor storm. Comes out of the Orion constellation. It hits every twenty seven years. When you were Lucy, and before that when you were Sarah…the night of the hunter meteor storm is the night you disappeared both times,” he shifted uncomfortably as he haltingly tried to explain. 

“Wh-where did I go?” she asked, despite doubting he had that information. 

“I don’t know,” he practically whispered. “You just…vanished.”

Audrey took a moment to try and remember how to breathe before she managed to ask. “When’s the next one?” 

“Two months,” Duke said sadly, looking down at the deck, unable to even look at her right now. 

“Two months?!” 

“Forty nine days,” he was more specific. 

She felt her heart ripping in two at the anguish that seemed to be radiating from him, but before she could say anything, Nathan was driving up. He was going to take her to the dog park after getting some supplies for Cookie. As she got in the truck she realized that she couldn’t keep the dog and had Nathan detour to find him a good home. She told Nathan that she wasn’t in the mood for company when he dropped her off, which wasn’t a complete lie. She needed to be able to fall apart and he would ask too many questions and get too uptight about the idea of her disappearing. 

She sat in her apartment, wrapped in a flannel blanket, alternating between crying and trying not to cry for a few hours before she gave up. She grabbed a bottle of rum that she had hidden in the back of her cabinet. It was the only alcohol she had in the apartment and she just hoped that Duke didn’t pry too deep about the fact that it was rum. She didn’t want to admit that it made her think of him. She didn’t know if he would appreciate the comparison to Jack Sparrow and it was kind of embarrassing anyway. She wiped the tears from her face as she headed down the stairs and across the dock to the Rouge, knowing that the tear tracks would still be visible, but not caring. Not with Duke. He would understand and sometimes he was the only person who ever had a chance to cheer her up. 

She got down to the boat, finding him lounging on the deck and held up the bottle. “Want some company?” she asked with a sniffle, still wrapped in her blanket. 

“Always,” Duke said with a sad smile, turning so that his feet were off the couch though he was still slightly reclining against the arm, and holding out an arm to her in offer. He could see that she’d been crying and if she needed a hug, he would gladly oblige. 

She gave him a watery smile and sat down, leaning against his side. They were only half sitting up, but neither of them noticed as Duke wrapped his arms around her, blanket and all, taking the bottle and opening it, taking a long swig before handing it to her so that she could do the same. Tonight was very much not the kind of night to use a glass. 

Duke reached over and grabbed the other blanket he kept on deck, seeing that she was a little chilly. It wasn’t surprising. She wasn’t from here the way he was. Not exactly anyway. Plus she was overwrought which tended to make those sorts of things hit harder. Not that he wasn’t chilly too, but he didn’t already have one blanket wrapped around him. He pulled it over both of them and leaned his head against hers. “You want to talk about it?” he asked gently. 

“I don’t want to leave,” she admitted, taking another swig from the bottle. 

“I know. And you have to know that I’m gonna fight like hell to make sure you don’t have to. We’ll try to find a way,” Duke promised. “Don’t give up, yet.” 

His sincere words and being wrapped in his arms on the deck of his boat made her almost feel like it could be okay. If anyone could find a way, it was Duke. She didn’t think he’d ever failed at any task he set himself. That gave her the courage to say, “I…I don’t want to leave…/you/.” She felt his breath hitch. 

Duke heard the emphasis of her words and wondered if she meant what he thought she meant. He set the bottle on the table next to him and brought his hand to her cheek to tilt her head up. “Audrey…” he trailed off as he met her eyes, looking for the answer he needed and when he found it, he leaned down and kissed her softly. When she responded, he wasted no time deepening the kiss, holding her tighter against him. Suddenly he felt something shift though as she pulled back. “What’s wrong?” he asked worriedly, hoping that he hadn’t overstepped. 

“There’s no time,” she said sadly. “We can’t…If I’m gonna be gone in two months…if I’m going to have to leave you behind…”

“Then I would rather grab every moment of happiness I can between now and then instead of spending the rest of my life wondering what it could have been,” Duke whispered. “Wouldn’t you?” he asked hopefully. His answer didn’t come in words, but rather in the feel of her lips on his. When he felt her hand unbuttoning his shirt, he slid his own hand over it, stopping her. At least for the moment. “Are you sure, Audrey?” he asked gently. “I know you’re feeling pretty vulnerable right now and I don’t want to…to take advantage of anything or…or do anything you’ll regret.”

Audrey smiled and leaned her forehead against his. “I’m sure, Duke. I…I...” 

”You what?” he prompted when it seemed like there was no more coming. 

Audrey took a deep breath before deciding that there wasn’t enough time to leave anything unsaid. There wasn’t enough time to be scared and unsure. They had less than fifty days. She had to put it all on the table. “I love you, Duke.” 

Duke huffed out a happy laugh, tilting his head forward to kiss her again, shorter this time, before pulling back to say, “I love you too, Audrey.” She crashed her lips back into his until they needed air and his lips moved to her neck as he murmured. “We should go inside, yeah?” 

“That’s probably a good idea,” she said breathlessly before finding herself lifted in his arms as he carried her into the cabin and to his bed. 

A while later, Audrey curled up to Duke’s side as he rolled off of her, not even caring about the sheen of sweat covering both of their bodies. She just needed to be close to him in every way she could. “No regrets?” Duke asked worriedly. 

“Uh-uh,” she shook her head, pressing a kiss to his chest, that being as far as she could move her head. “You?” 

“That depends,” he said in a teasing tone. “Did you just tell me you loved me to get me into bed but now you’ll be gone in the morning?” 

Audrey knew that he was mostly joking and couldn’t help but laugh, but she could also sense the undercurrent of truth there too. She knew that so much of his attitude was armor designed to protect himself from being hurt. She didn’t know who had hurt him in the past or how, but she knew that he’d been cut deep. That was part of the reason she was hesitant to do this given her potential disappearance in less than two months. Given the fact that some part of him was actually worried about it, she propped up on her elbow and looked into his eyes. “I told you that I loved you, because I do. Because despite the fact that I might not have much time left, I want to spend what I do have with you.” 

Duke smiled brightly and reached up to brush her sweat-slick hair back from her face, resting his palm on her cheek. “And in case you’re wondering, I didn’t just say it to get you in bed either.” 

“Good,” she grinned, leaning over to steal a kiss as her fingers danced over his chest absentmindedly. 

“How long?” Duke asked curiously. He wanted to know how long he could have had this already if he’d been paying more attention. If he’d taken a chance sooner. How much of their so precious short time they’d missed. 

“I told you about the groundhog day I was stuck in, right?” she asked. 

“Yeah. You said I died at one point…” he wondered if that had something to do with it. 

“You did. What I didn’t tell you was that when I saw you laying on that pavement dying, I felt like I was dying with you. That was when I realized how much I loved you. When I woke up the next morning to find that it was the same day again, I ran downstairs still only partially dressed, and jumped in your arms. Seeing you alive again…”

Duke chuckled as his hands trailed over her skin. “See now that part I wish I remembered. I hope I was properly appreciative.”

Audrey laughed. “You were confused and maybe a little amused, but you’ve never been one to deny me a hug if I wanted one, so yeah.”

“Now I feel like kind of a dick for making that joke about the rent being late,” he said amusedly, turning to press a kiss to her shoulder. 

“Well given that you died that time /because/ I gave you the rent, damn straight it was late.”

“Huh?” Duke said confused. 

“When I ran into you right before the accident you told me that you hadn’t been planning to come to town that day, but you wanted to deposit the rent check. Then you walked across the street to the bank and…”

“Boom,” Duke finished. “I guess I owe you a thank you for not paying me on time then.” 

“You’re welcome,” she teased. “So my turn. How long?” 

Duke’s lips twitched in a smile. “Funny enough it was a similar situation,” he started. “On your birthday when the shape shifter was changed into you and Nathan shot who I thought was you…it felt like my heart stopped. And then again when we found you locked in that trunk and you were barely breathing…”

“I remember you were the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes,” she smiled, brushing her knuckles down his cheek. 

“I’m glad,” Duke said softly as he leaned into her touch. “It was always just so easy with you, you know? I mean, not in every way…you can be a very difficult person sometimes, you know…ow,” he laughed as she pinched him. “But overall…you saw /me/ right from the start. Despite all the stories you heard about how awful I was…you gave me a chance, which is more than most anyone else has ever done.”

Audrey huffed a laugh. “I remember when we met. I had woken up, naked in your bed with no memory of how I got there, and I was pretty much terrified. I mean…you can see what it looked like.”

“I know. Which is why I made every attempt to be as non-threatening as possible,” Duke admitted. “I couldn’t believe you actually did give me a chance after that. That’s when I knew you were special.”

“Well I remembered falling off the pier and hitting my head and the fact that you left me my gun so I was armed and you weren’t definitely helped,” she told him. “The real thing that stopped me in my tracks though was when I realized that you washed my clothes and made me breakfast. And just so you know…yes I noticed you peeking while I was getting dressed.”

Duke let out a barking laugh. “I wasn’t particularly trying to hide it.”

“No, I guess you weren’t. But what got me thought was that you weren’t /leering/ like most men would in that position. Clearly you’d already seen me naked when you rescued me, so it wasn’t about that, but that hint of mischief and fun in your eyes…that was what drew me in. I knew then that, no matter how many laws you’d broken, you weren’t a bad guy. I felt…safe with you. I always have, and I know that sounds stupid since I’m a cop and I was an FBI agent, but…”

“It doesn’t sound stupid,” Duke cut her off with a kiss. “We all want to feel safe. Especially if we can take care of ourselves. Probably because it’s a burden we always carry to keep ourselves safe, so knowing that there’s someone else that can help us carry it, means more.” 

“Does that mean I make you feel safe too?” Audrey asked, carding her hand through his hair. 

“Hmm…should I play the whole macho card or not…” he pretended to think it over and she flicked his forehead amusedly. “Yes, you make me feel safe,” he answered with a chuckle. “I mean…come on…I’m a smuggler. An outlaw. And I made friends with an FBI agent. I hate cops. And I hate feds more. I would never have opened up to you if I didn’t feel like I was safe with you.” 

“Which brings up a subject I want to make sure is clear. My job is important to me, but so are you. Don’t parade anything obviously in front of me and don’t ask me to lie for an alibi and we’ll be good. I don’t want to bust you so don’t put me in a position where I don’t have a choice,” Audrey wanted to make that perfectly clear, since they were apparently doing the relationship thing. 

“Define obviously?” Duke asked. 

“As in making a deal right in front of me. If something comes up while I’m there, at least take them to another room and make an effort to not allow me to overhear or something. I don’t plan to go snooping through your cargo, and if for some reason I happen to stumble across something, I would pretend not to see it.”

“Fair enough,” Duke agreed. “I wouldn’t want to put you in that kind of position anyway.” 

“And I appreciate that,” Audrey said snuggling up to his side, the drying sweat making her a little chilly. 

Duke noticed her shiver and reached down for the covers, pulling them up over them. “You staying?” he asked. 

“Unless you have any objections.”

“I would have more objections to you leaving.”

“Even though I snore?” she joked. 

“But it’s a very cute snore,” he laughed.

“Then I’m staying,” she agreed. Once she was snuggled tightly in the blankets and wrapped in Duke’s arms, it didn’t take long at all for her to fall asleep. Duke leaned his head against hers, just breathing her in, trying to figure out how he got so lucky, but it wasn’t much longer before he fell asleep too. 

The next morning, Audrey woke to the smell of bacon and coffee, but before she could get up, she noticed Duke carrying a tray in to her. “Breakfast in bed? You’re going to spoil me,” she grinned. 

Duke leaned over for a lingering kiss as he set the tray in her lap before climbing into bed next to her. “I plan to spoil you as much as I can for as long as I can.” It was the closest he wanted to come today to bringing up their potential deadline. 

Audrey reached up a hand to run through his hair. “As long as you let me spoil you where I can too.”

“I can live with that. But no cooking,” Duke joked. 

“I don’t think poisoning you could really count as spoiling anyway,” Audrey laughed. 

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

“But you were thinking it.”

“Are we punishing thought crimes now, detective Parker?” he teased. 

“I assure you, Mr. Crocker, any punishments I dish out, you will like,” she said suggestively, trailing a finger down his face to his chest and stopping at his stomach. 

“Mmm, I do like the sound of that,” Duke smirked leaning in for a dirty kiss. “Now eat before it gets cold.”

Audrey laughed and did as she was told, while he leaned close, halfway behind her, eating from the other plate on the tray, pressing occasional kisses to her shoulder or neck between bites. Once they were done, Duke led them to the shower. As he washed her hair, she sighed happily and leaned her head back, allowing him to pepper kisses over her throat. “Duke?” she asked worriedly. 

“Hmm?” he responded, not stopping his ministrations.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay? I mean…after…you know.” 

Duke stood back straight and moved a lathered hand to her cheek. “Look at me Audrey,” he said gently, waiting until she opened her eyes and he met them seriously. “I’ll be okay. I’ll survive. I always do. But this, right here? This is /more/ than worth /anything/ that comes later.” 

She smiled at him, leaning up for a lingering kiss as the tears started pricking her eyes. “Okay. Just remember that no matter what happens, I still love you. And I want you to move on and be happy and…and live your life and…” 

Duke pulled her in tightly, leaning his head against her soapy one. “Hey, shh. I haven’t given up on finding a way to keep you yet, and I’m not going to.”

“Just promise me…” she sniffled. 

“I promise, Audrey,” he whispered, leaning back and tilting her chin up with his fingers. “But you have to promise me something too. Wherever you go…whatever happens to you…if you can’t get back here to me…you have to do the same. You have to live and be happy too, okay?” 

Audrey nodded. “You don’t want me to promise to come back?” she asked curiously. 

“I know you, Audrey. If there’s any possible way for you to get back here, you’ll take it. With or without a promise,” Duke gave a half smile as he eased her head under the spray to rinse her hair. “Just like you know that if there’s any way possible to keep you here or bring you back after you’re gone, I’ll take it.” 

“I love you, Duke,” she breathed out, trailing her hands over his chest and arms. 

“And I love you, Audrey,” he replied softly as he finished her hair and she reached for the shampoo to return the favor. 

Nothing else about her eventual disappearance was mentioned for the rest of the day as they just enjoyed being together. Since it was the weekend, Audrey didn’t have to worry about going to work unless there was a trouble acting up, so they spent a quiet day on the boat which included finishing the bottle of rum that had been abandoned the previous night. Sunday was spent much the same way save for a few hours when Duke disappeared with a simple, “You don’t want to know,” when Audrey asked what was up. 

“Just don’t use that to hide things from me that I /should/ know?” she asked of him. 

“I won’t,” he promised and she didn’t ask any more questions. When he got back, he found her in her apartment and invited her down to the Gull for dinner which she gladly accepted. This was much different than the other hundred times they’d had dinner here. Duke had been hoping that she wasn’t planning on keeping their relationship secret, and was glad that she clearly didn’t judging by the way she had no problems leaning on him and stealing kisses during the meal. As much as he appreciated it on one level, he also knew he needed to steel himself for a confrontation with Nathan when word got out.

That night was spent in Audrey’s apartment since she had to work in the morning and Duke woke her up with coffee and a lighter than normal breakfast, knowing that she didn’t like the heavy stuff when she had to work all day. He did try and talk her out of going in though. He realized that their brief interlude from life was over when she was a little crankier than usual. “Come on. Coffee. Sunrise. Best view in Haven. This is exactly what you need,” he said cheerfully, trying to make her feel better. 

“I need to go, Duke. I’m gonna be late. I need to be out there. Helping the troubled. It’s the one thing I know I want to do,” she said impatiently. 

“Look, Audrey, I’m just saying. If I knew I was gonna vanish in forty six days, I probably wouldn’t be heading off to the grind,” Duke argued. He didn’t want to lose a second with her. When she just kept getting her stuff together, he tried again. “Okay. I will take you to my secret oyster field,” he offered. “You ever have blue point oysters? Drizzled in Epsom?”

“Not today, thanks,” she said, calming down as she realized that he was just trying to hold on. He was just as scared as she was about what was coming, despite how much better he was hiding it. 

He picked up her keys from where they’d fallen out of her pocket last night during their undressing, and held them up for her as he said, “Audrey, come on. I mean, don’t you just…look around this madhouse sometimes and think, ‘I am gonna grab the first flight out of here’? You know, go to some secret island where nobody does anything. Wears anything.” She reached for the keys and he pulled them back. “Nobody turns into anything unnatural.”

“Sometimes,” she admitted, holding her hand out for the keys that he reluctantly relinquished. 

“You’d think even chief Wuornos would want you to take a little vacation time,” he grumbled. 

“Yeah, I gotta go,” she said, pausing for a moment to give him a lingering kiss. “It’ll be okay, Duke. I’ll see you tonight?” 

“Absolutely,” he said with a sad smile as he let her go. 

She had just walked out the door, when something dawned on Duke, and he went after her, locking the door behind him. “You haven’t told him,” he accused. 

“No,” she said with a sigh. 

“What are you waiting for?” Duke asked gently. 

“The right time?” she said weakly. 

“Okay…Audrey, I…I really couldn’t handle living in this town with Nathan if you disappeared and…and he didn’t know why,” Duke said worriedly. He really didn’t want to end up dead when Nathan came after him for whatever conclusion he would jump to. 

“Sorry if it inconveniences you,” she said in irritation. Nathan and Duke was probably always going to be a sore subject with her. To be fair, Nathan usually started the arguments between them regarding her, but the way they keep butting heads over the subject made her want to scream. 

Duke headed for the station after lunch and went to Audrey’s office to wait for her, but he didn’t have to wait long. “Hey..I just…I want to apologize,” Duke told her. “What you tell Nathan…is honestly none of my business.” 

“No, you were right. I told him,” Audrey admitted. The fact that he came all the way down here to apologize meant a lot. As did the fact that he was staying out of her friendship with Nathan. 

“How’d he take it?” Duke asked worriedly. 

“He’s confused. Guess that makes two of us,” she sighed sitting on the edge of her desk. 

Duke looked like he was fighting with himself for a minute before he grabbed a chair and pulled it over, sitting so that he was eye level with her. “Don’t do this,” he half-begged, half-ordered. 

“What?” she asked confused. 

“Don’t just…blindly accept what’s supposed to happen to you. Nobody knows better than me what it’s like to have some crazy destiny dropped on you. I mean, hell I…I’m supposed to be out running around all silver eyed killing people…ending their family’s troubles…”

“But you’re not,” Audrey assured him, seeing how hard that was still hitting him. 

“No. Because, I choose…not to give in to my fate,” he said firmly, trying to get the point across. “/I/ choose the life I live. And you can too.”

“Lucy didn’t have a choice,” Audrey tried to point out. “Sarah either, alright? So what makes you think that I do?” 

Duke sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Audrey. I mean…I want to help you, but I honestly just don’t have any idea how to do that.” He felt more than useless right now. Like he was watching the freight train baring down on them and he was completely helpless to move. “You just…call me if you need /anything/,” he said sadly as he got up to leave with a squeeze to her hand. 

It was only a little over an hour later when Audrey took him up on his offer and he headed back to the station. Seeing that the office was full, he gave a cursory knock on the door. “Is this a bad time? Cause I’m kinda feeling some…awkward cop tension,” he tried to lighten the mood. 

Nathan got up and moved in front of him to block him from the room and particularly from Audrey. “Not now,” he said coldly. 

“Hi, Nathan. It’s nice to see you too, but uh…I’m actually here because Audrey called,” Duke explained trying to step around Nathan. 

“Why?” Nathan asked Audrey accusingly. 

“I need his help, Nathan,” Audrey said firmly. 

Nathan walked over to her, backing her far enough away to be able to talk somewhat privately. “What are you doing?” 

“We have twenty nine people who we gotta track down before this guy gets to them,” she said evenly. 

“And I have every cop in the department on his way in,” Nathan argued. “We don’t need him.”

“And we need all the help we can get,” Audrey said as though it should be obvious. There was no way she could tell Nathan why she really needed Duke. She couldn’t tell Duke either. Not yet. 

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with you and Duke, or what he said to you but whatever it is, we’ll fix it. We will. Without him,” Nathan said hopefully. 

“Just give me the list of kids,” Audrey said impatiently. She was not having this argument again. When he hesitated, she snapped, “Please…Nathan, we are running out of time.” When he stammered, still trying to argue it, she just snatched the list out of his hand and stormed out, tapping Duke on the shoulder and jerking her head on the way, and he jumped up and followed her amusedly. She was adorable when she was on a tear. 

By the time they got to the first address, she was chill enough for Duke to make a joke. “You know, when I said that I would help you, I was thinking, in my mind, something fun. Maybe involving something like fruity mixed blender drinks…”

“If you don’t want to do this…” Audrey started amusedly before Duke cut her off. 

“Hey…I’m here,” he promised. “You know the freaky thing about you Audrey? Is finding some guy who’s hunting his kids /is/ your idea of fun,” he teased. 

“/That’s/ the freaky thing about me,” she asked wryly as she knocked on the door. This one quickly turned into a race to save the girl, which they won. For the most part. But now Audrey had to give Duke all the details of this particular case. At least it let them know who exactly they were looking for. 

When Duke saw the picture of the the guy and his family, he realized how serious this was. If he was running, he had three ready donors right there with him. It did say something at least that he didn’t go for the kids he’d raised first. Not that it said much. If it was him, he wouldn’t hesitate to let himself die rather than hurt any of his kids, whether he raised them or not. Hell, he would die before hurting any kids period. They finally caught him before he killed one of his own kids, but that kid was going into shock like the others as Duke pulled him to the side to try and calm him down and keep him from seeing what was going on. 

“Get Tommy and the boy out of here,” Audrey told Nathan. 

“Why?” Nathan asked suspiciously. 

“I only need Duke,” Audrey said carefully. 

“Why? Nathan asked again. When Audrey didn’t answer, both Nathan and Duke figured it out and Nathan was looking at her disgustedly. “You should have told me.”

“You would have tried to stop me.”

“You don’t know where this ends,” Nathan scoffed. 

“I know that it saves lives today, Nathan,” Audrey told him firmly. She really hated leaving Duke out of this conversation. She had hoped to have time to actually talk to him about it before they were here, but this is what fate had handed them and she had to work with it. “And countless others down the line. Please just take them, and go.” 

Duke waited until the other’s were gone, before he slowly got up and faced Audrey. “We’ll handle this?” he asked fearfully. She was /not/ going to ask him to do what he thought she was going to. She couldn’t. “What do you mean we’ll handle this?” 

“I’m sorry, Duke. I really am,” Audrey told him earnestly. 

Duke realized that she actually was asking him for that and he felt the anger and desperation welling up inside him. “You didn’t need me to help find him. You needed me to kill him.”

“There are scores of other kids out there,” Audrey tried to reason. “They are just going to die, but they are going to kill their families too, and you are the only one that can stop that.”

“You have /no right/ to put this on me,” he snarled. 

“His organs are failing,” Audrey pointed out. “He’s going to die. There’s nothing that we can do about that. But you can kill his curse before he goes.” She pulled her gun and went to hand it to him. 

Duke was starting to panic as he took a few steps back, looking at the gun like it was a live grenade. “What is that? No!” He slapped the gun out of her hand. “The entire time, I was helping you…you were planning this,” he said with revulsion. He wondered how far back it went. Since he found out about his curse? Had she just been the one wanting to point his gun at the targets?

“No. Not at first. Then I saw the photos of all of those kids at the fertility clinic. All of those kids that would die, or worse, and I /knew/…I knew that you were the only answer,” she begged him to understand. “Then I thought that if you could see the kind of monster that you were dealing with…” 

“That I would want to become one too?” he asked pointedly. “This wasn’t your decision to make.” 

Audrey looked sadly at him. She hated even asking it of him and she realized now just how unfair it had been for her to do so. No matter if it was the only way, Duke deserved better than that. Especially from her. What was the point in saving others if it destroyed the man she loved. “You’re right,” she admitted. “Walk away.” The tears in his eyes broke her heart. “Whatever happens, I’ll deal with it.”

“Yeah, you’re damn right you will,” Duke snapped before turning and storming off. He made it as far as the cars when he saw the little boy start to double over and move towards his sister and he felt he bile rise in his throat. That man’s death would be completely pointless if all these kids stayed cursed. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, wracking his brain for another solution. /Any/ other solution. He couldn’t find one though. He turned around and headed back, glad when Audrey wasn’t near the dying body right now. Duke swallowed heavily and steeled himself for what he was about to do before kneeling beside the man and covering his mouth and nose. If he was going to do this, he was going to feel it. He wasn’t going to stand twenty feet away and shoot him. He was going to feel every second of life slipping away. He was going to connect to it. To him. He only prayed that it would be enough to keep him from becoming the monster he feared. That the guilt would drown out the bloodlust enough. Once it was done he disappeared back out of the woods. He couldn’t even look at Audrey right now. 

When Audrey got back from her phone call, she found the man dead, but assumed that he died of the organ failure. It wasn’t until late that night when she was finishing up the paperwork, that Claire mentioned how all the kids were cured and Audrey realized what Duke had done. “I gotta go,” she said quickly, leaving her almost finished paperwork on her desk and grabbing her coat, all but running for the door. She was unsurprised to find him at the closed Gull, sitting in the mostly dark, downing shots like there was no tomorrow. When she came in, he just glared at her, and didn’t say a word. “Can I get one of those?” she asked hopefully as she got to the counter. 

He poured himself another glass and then set the bottle down hard slightly closer to her. He wasn’t going to say no, but he wasn’t going to wait on her either. He was still too pissed. Both at her and himself. If she was smart, she would leave and let him calm down. At least for the night. She had never been one to let things go though. 

She considered leaving for a minute. It was clear that he didn’t want to talk. Especially not to her. If he was just angry, she probably would have, but she knew that he was tearing himself apart for what he’d done. What she’d forced him into doing. She couldn’t just leave him like that. She moved over and sat at the stool next to him. “Got some good news,” she said gently. “Stan’s nephew recovered. And so did Connor…and Zoe…and Miriam. But I bet you already knew that.” She needed him to see…to recognize…that he didn’t just kill someone. That he saved so many more. “Duke, what happened back there?” Duke just looked at her disgustedly and she couldn’t tell if he was more disgusted with himself or her, but the tears shining in his eyes, just on the verge of falling, made her want to rip her own heart out of her chest. When he just shook his head and got up and walked out without a word, it was even worse and she felt her own tears fall. 

She poured herself a tall glass and downed it and then went back upstairs after making sure to lock the doors to the Gull behind her. She fell into her bed, tears falling heavily now. This would be the first night since their first kiss that she and Duke had been apart, and they had so little time left and she was wasting it. All because she had cared more for other people for him. Because she had pushed him into something that he found morally reprehensible and completely disregarded his feelings on the matter. She didn’t know how long she had been hugging her knees and crying before she felt the bed dip next to her and a warm hand on her back. “We’ll talk tomorrow?” Duke asked. 

Audrey sniffled and nodded. At least she hadn’t lost him completely. “Stay? I mean…I get you’re mad and upset and you don’t want to talk right now, but…”

“Come on,” Duke eased her off the bed and pulled the blankets back. No matter how angry he was, he didn’t want to lose any more of their precious time than he had to. It was a push and pull that was driving him insane, but he just did what he always did and went with it. When she curled up to his side, he couldn’t help but hold her tightly and rest his head on hers, not even caring if she felt his tears soaking her hair. Sleep was a long time coming for both of them, and when Duke woke up the next morning she was already gone, but there was coffee and a note. It said that there was an emergency and she loved him and hoped that they could still talk that night.


	4. Chapter 4

Duke wasn’t sure what to think of it, but dragged himself out of bed and headed into town. When he heard about the shark in the pool, the chance to see Audrey was only part of the reason that he went to check it out. He had to prove, both to her and to himself, that he wasn’t the monster he feared he was becoming. He had to help with this case. He just let himself past the police tape, not at all surprised when Nathan was very much not happy to see him. “What are you doing here?” Nathan asked distastefully. 

“Heard there was a monster in the pool. Thought I’d come check it out…you know…concerned citizen and all,” he focused on Nathan, not quite ready to face Audrey yet. 

“Duke?” Audrey walked up worriedly. “What are you doing here?” She knew that leaving without telling him wouldn’t be a good idea this morning, but she didn’t have time to have the conversation they needed to have and she couldn’t stomach him looking at her the way he had last night again. She hadn’t expected him to follow her to work though and the coldness of his demeanor worried her more than she could say. 

“He was just leaving,” Nathan ordered. 

“Just staying,” Duke smirked. 

“This is a police investigation. You’re not a cop,” Nathan said smugly. 

“You wanted my help last time,” he slowly turned to look at Audrey. “Isn’t that right…Audrey?” 

“We don’t even know that it’s a trouble,” she pointed out. She wasn’t sure if she could handle working with him until they got everything settled between them. Until he was back to treating her like he always had. Or at least /more/ like it.

Duke looked around at the blood filled pool and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we do.” He started walking around the pool checking things out. 

“He just shows up? Thinks he can do what he wants?” Nathan asked Audrey incredulously. “He just killed a guy.”

“Only because I asked him to,” Audrey pointed out, unwilling to let Duke take the fall for that. 

“You sure about that?” Nathan asked accusingly. When Audrey just rolled her eyes, Nathan kept trying. “When he transforms he gets a rush. You’ve seen it for yourself.”

“He didn’t ask for what happened to him,” Audrey replied. 

“That doesn’t mean he’s not gonna learn to like it,” Nathan snapped, walking away before Audrey could respond. 

Audrey knew that was exactly what Duke’s greatest fear was. He was terrified that he would learn to like it and become a true monster. Just like all the past Crockers. She was relatively certain that it was a baseless fear, but with the memories of the FBI psych training, she knew that it was possible. Even for someone who felt as deeply as Duke did. She turned to look at him worriedly. She knew that even if it would happen, it was nowhere near that point yet and she resolved never to ask him to do that again. She went over to talk to him and it was rather stilted and uncomfortable, and the conversation stayed ‘work’ related, but she agreed to let him help and they headed back to the station. Duke did agree to wait outside though at least. 

Duke could see Audrey and Nathan arguing when they came out of the building and judging by the looks Nathan kept sending him, clearly it was about him. “Bout time. Scooby van was about to leave without you two.” 

Nathan got up in his face. “Duke, I know what you did saved lives…but I know you. And I don’t trust that that’ll be the end of it.” 

“Nathan, I don’t think this is about you not trusting me,” Duke wanted to get this out there once and for all. “I think you’re pissed…because Audrey does.” 

Before anything else could be said there was a splash and a scream that drew their attention and all three of them raced towards it. As they day went on and they kept chasing down leads, they finally figured out who it was just in time for Duke to get affected. He knew the feeling of drowning well. He lived on the sea. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt the pain of water filling his lungs. It was the first time it had happened on land though. 

As Duke reached out to her, Audrey’s mind flashed back to the ‘you make me feel safe’ conversation and as he hit the ground and stopped breathing, she had to force back the panic. No. She couldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not like this. She brought her first aid training to the forefront of her mind and started CPR, and as he started coughing up the water and breathing again, the knot in her chest finally started to loosen. Even as he sat up an rolled to the side to continue expelling the water, she couldn’t let him go, rubbing his back and arms and even running a hand through his suddenly wet hair. She just had to touch him. To reassure herself that he was okay. 

Duke stripped off his soaked sweater. The rest of his clothes would dry soon enough, but the sweater was heavy when wet. Now that they knew who and why, they turned to the where. Thankfully Duke knew this coast like the back of his hand and there was only one spot on the road without guardrails, with a cliff over a backwash and water that was deep and cold enough for that breed of shark. Unfortunately, he had to point out that they were now racing the tide. 

Once they got there, Nathan and Audrey were trying to decide who was going to go down first while Duke tied the rope off to the truck, but then Audrey had another flash of memory, and stumbled. By the time she’d recovered, Duke was already on his way down. “What’s Duke doing?” she asked worriedly. Was he insane? She had already almost taken him out once. He wasn’t immune to the troubles the way she was and he was putting himself right in the path. Unfortunately, Nathan thought he knew and started to pull his gun. 

“He’s gonna kill her to stop the trouble,” Nathan accused. 

“No, Nathan, don’t!” Audrey said grabbing his arm. No way was she going to let him shoot Duke. Not for anything. 

“She’s the one in danger,” Nathan argued. 

“No, Nathan,” she kept ahold of his arm. “Listen…he’s the same Duke that he was last week. The same Duke that you’ve known your whole entire life.”

“Exactly,” Nathan said. Did she really think that would make him feel better?

Duke hit the bottom of the cliff and rushed to the car, moving around to the driver’s side as she started screaming about the rocks falling. “Daphne!” he snapped. “You’re doing this. You’re causing the rocks to fall.” He had to make her understand that if they were going to have any hope. “You have to stop!”

“Hurry!” she screamed almost incoherently. 

Duke looked up the cliff worriedly and called up a warning, “She’s gonna cause a rockslide!” 

“Get away from her car!” Audrey called back down. If there was a rockslide it would roll the car out and he would be trapped under it. 

Duke ignored her and went back to studying the situation to figure out how to fix it and when he saw the blood in the water, he knew what he had to do. He reached over her and stuck his hand in the water, closest to where the blood seemed to be coming from. He pulled back shaking as the transformation washed over him and once he felt the rush, he stood up to get his knife out of his pocket, looking up at the top to make sure Audrey was still okay. He saw Nathan trying to raise his gun and Audrey stopping him and he was glad that she still had that much faith in him at least. 

Duke managed to get Daphne out of the car before his strength ended and he carried her back to the cliff. As hurt as she was, she wasn’t able to hold tightly enough to him for him to climb so Audrey and Nathan had to pull her up and then drop the rope back down to him. He climbed as they pulled which made it quicker and easier and by the time he was up, the ambulance was there and Daphne was on her way to the hospital with Audrey. Duke hadn’t expected an apology from Nathan and didn’t get one. He just considered himself lucky that Nathan hadn’t cut the rope when he was near the top. 

Duke was heading back to the boat when he got a call from Daphne who asked him to come by the hospital, so he detoured, wondering if Audrey was still there. He was walking in just as Audrey came out of Daphne’s room. “Duke,” she said happily and a little nervously. “I didn’t know you were gonna be here.”

“Daphne asked me to come by,” he said quickly, not wanting her to think he was being a creepy stalker and following her around. “So she could say thank you, I guess. How is she?” 

Claire was the one to answer. She knew about the problems that Audrey and Duke were having right now since Audrey had come to her for advice, and she wanted to word it in such a way that it would help Duke understand how Audrey was feeling too. “She’s wrapping her head around the fact that she’s responsible for hurting and killing people she cared about.” 

“Yeah, that’s gonna be a hard thing to live with,” he said distractedly as he and Audrey got lost in each other’s eyes. 

Claire glanced between them a few times before saying, “I’m gonna…go recheck her vitals.” 

Once they were alone, the spell was broken, and Audrey said, “Hey I wanted to say…say thank you. For helping us find Daphne alive…we couldn’t have done it without you.” 

“And thank you for not killing her,” Duke guessed. “I mean, I gonna…just assume that’s implied.”

“Of course not,” Audrey said. 

Duke didn’t completely believe her. He was sure that he’d seen doubt in her eyes at more than one point today. “I mean…Nathan can think whatever he wants. I don’t care, but…you’re the one who /asked/ me to kill that man. Asked me to do something that I said I would /never/ do.”

“I know,” she said guiltily. “This is…it’s all my fault.” The fact that Nathan was even more distrusting and hateful than ever. The fact that Duke was feeling so horrible. 

“No. That’s just it,” Duke shook his head and looked straight at her. “It was my decision. That’s why I wanted to be on this case, Audrey. To show you that my family’s legacy does not control me. And neither do you,” he finished harshly.

“I know,” she said sadly before heading out. This wasn’t the time or the place for this conversation. She gave his arm a squeeze and her look promised that they would continue this later. 

Duke went in to visit Daphne before heading back to the Rouge to start dinner for two. He figured…hoped…that Audrey would be by once she finished up the paperwork for the case. When he felt her step onto the boat, he started dishing up the food that had been ready and keeping warm for about ten minutes and was just setting it on the table as she walked in. “Talk now?” she asked hopefully. 

Duke nodded and motioned her to sit, grabbing his bottle of bourbon and pouring them each a glass to go with the food. “You lied to me…manipulated me…/used/ me,” he told her before tossing back his glass and pouring another one. He needed alcohol for this conversation. 

“No,” Audrey denied. “I mean…yeah. It did kinda end up that way, but…It wasn’t my intention.”

“What was your intention, Audrey? Huh? You took me along, showed me a bunch of pictures of kids that would die and then handed me your gun to shoot someone. How is that /any/ different than how the rev wanted to use me?” 

“Okay, I knew when I asked for your help with the case that it might come to that, yes, but I didn’t give up on finding another way until later. Until I realized that there /was/ no other way. I was fully intending to actually talk to you about it beforehand, but then everything happened so fast and there wasn’t time. You weren’t the only one that was affected by the pictures of all those kids, Duke.”

“There wasn’t time? You couldn’t find two minutes to give me a heads up and say, ‘oh by the way, I’m gonna be asking you to kill someone, so you should take a minute to consider your decision there.’”

“I…didn’t know how to say it, and maybe…maybe some part of me thought it would be better if you didn’t have to agonize over it for so long…”

“So you wanted to be the one to make the decision for me by not giving me time to consider my own,” Duke pointed out, downing his third glass before refilling them both for Audrey’s third. 

“I…I didn’t think of it like that,” she admitted. “I’m sorry, Duke. I handled it badly. I know. But I need /you/ to know, that I never once thought that you were your father, Duke. I never thought you were going to kill her.” 

“Then why did you look so worried?” 

“I was worried about you. About you getting hurt or killed trying to prove something that you didn’t need to prove,” Audrey told him. 

“So you’re saying that you don’t have any doubts at all that I will never become a monster,” he said in disbelief. “You think I didn’t hear everything Nathan’s been saying all day?” 

“I didn’t know you heard that, but no. I don’t have any doubts that you are /not/ becoming a monster, but…I know how it happens. And I can’t say with absolute certainty that you never could. That if you keep being pushed that way that eventually it will become too much. Which is why I will /never/ ask you to do that again unless there is no other possible way around it. And I promise from now on if it does come to that…I will give you as much time as I can for you to make your own decision and will always support you no matter what you decide.” 

“So…you know I’m not becoming a monster, but you think I could?” Duke tried to wrap his head around that. 

“I think that /anyone/ could in the right circumstances, but I know that you are nowhere near that point. And that we won’t let you get to that point,” Audrey tried to explain better. 

“And if I do get to that point?” Duke asked. “If I do start killing people that I don’t need to in order to kill their curses? Would you still ‘support’ me?” 

“No. I would do what I could to stop you,” Audrey admitted. 

“Would you kill me?” Duke asked. 

“Never,” Audrey said quickly and earnestly. 

“Even if I wanted you to?” 

“What?” she furrowed her brow as the conversation took a turn. 

Duke reached over and took her hand for the first time, now that the food was gone and they were just talking. “If I cross that line, Audrey…I want you to kill me.”

“No, Duke. I couldn’t…”

“You started this,” he said seriously. “You pushed the whole one life to save a dozen line on me. Now I’m just turning it around. If I lose control…with the strength that I get during the transformation…you won’t be able to stop me unless you kill me. I would rather be dead than turn into that and you are the only one that I trust to know when I’m too far gone…please Audrey.”

Audrey took a deep breath, seeing his point. “Okay,” she finally agreed, tears filling her eyes. “But I swear to god, Duke Crocker if you make me live up to that promise, my next bullet will be used on myself because I could never live with…”

Duke slid over to take her in his arms as her tears started to fall and he felt bad now for putting that on her. Despite the fact that she’d put the same thing on him. “I won’t,” he assured her. “I won’t let myself fall down that hole. I won’t let my family’s legacy control me. I just…need a failsafe. Just in case.”

“I’m so sorry, Duke,” Audrey buried her face in his neck and his arms tightened around her. “I’m sorry I had to ask you to do that. I’m sorry for the way I handled it.”

“I know,” Duke sighed, running a hand through her hair. “I forgive you.” 

“I love you, Duke,” she whispered. “Tell me we’ll be okay?”

“We’ll be okay, Audrey,” Duke promised. “I love you. No matter what. As long as we have that, we’ll be just fine.” She leaned up and captured his lips with hers and he met her enthusiasm with his own. She couldn’t believe how much she had missed this in only two days. She needed him like she needed air. They didn’t even make it to bed this time as the empty plates, glasses, and empty bottle of bourbon hit the floor and they made love right there on the table. The next time they made it to the bedroom though before they fell asleep in a tangle of limbs. Neither them even noticed or cared that they hadn’t used protection this time. 

The next morning Audrey had a new case, and of course, Duke ended up getting wrapped up in it too. Neither of them were complaining about the protective custody though other than the fact that they had to sleep in shifts, but they still spent the time in Audrey’s bed together. This time though, there were multiple guns in easy reach and after the sex, they got dressed again, preferring not to have to take down an intruder naked if it could be avoided. 

The morning after though, Nathan finally found out about their relationship. They hadn’t exactly been hiding it, but nor had they actually told him and the fact that Nathan doesn’t really listen to gossip or socialize much meant that he hadn’t known. When they called him after the woman attacked though, he took one look at the bed that was too messed up for one person and the couch that didn’t look the slightest bit slept on, and figured it out. He was professional enough not to say anything until the scene was processed at least, but once everyone was gone, he pulled Audrey to the side and asked incredulously, “You’re sleeping with him?” 

Duke, despite being intentionally excluded, was the one to respond. “That’s not really your business, Nathan.” 

Nathan couldn’t even look at Duke right now so he addressed his reply to Audrey. “It is if one of my detectives is sleeping with a known smuggler and criminal.”

Audrey resisted the urge to slap him. Barely. So that’s the way they were going to play this. “What are you going to do then, Nathan? Fire me for falling in love with someone you don’t approve of?” 

Nathan looked like he’d been struck as he gaped at her. “…in love?” 

“Yes, Nathan,” Duke said pointedly as he moved behind Audrey and wrapped his arms around her stomach. “In love. Deal with it.” 

“But…if we can’t find a way to keep you here…”

“Then we’re grabbing as much happiness as we can while we still can,” Duke told him, not wanting to put the idea in Audrey’s head that he would be better off if she kept him at arms length. They’d already worked through that one and he didn’t want to have that conversation again. 

“How long has this been going on?” Nathan asked hesitantly. He clearly remembered them insisting that they were friends not that long ago. 

“A week,” Audrey told him, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

“I…okay,” Nathan breathed out. “Okay, just…don’t let it affect the job Parker.” 

“It won’t,” she assured him. 

Nathan nodded curtly and headed out. He would have to keep an eye on Duke himself from now on. Audrey would never be able to see him clearly. Not now. There was no more point in trying to show her that Duke couldn’t be trusted. Not without airtight proof. He didn’t think she could ignore that much, but if it came to it…if Duke became a problem…he couldn’t count on her anymore. That was okay. He would just have to be more vigilant himself. 

It wasn’t until the end of the case that Audrey realized just how guilty Duke still felt for the man he’d had to kill and she had to argue with Lady Justice, and hope that Duke heard her too, that he was a good man. That he did what was necessary to save lives and that he would never hurt anyone for any other reason. Thankfully the girl who was conjuring Lady Justice heard her and realized that she didn’t have the right to judge people and it was over. The fact that Duke was so forgiving about almost being killed and all the damage to his property kinda drove the point home to her. Audrey thought that getting rid of his parking tickets and related offenses was a minor concession after everything that he’d been through, and even Nathan had to reluctantly agree. 

Duke and Audrey spent a trouble-free weekend on the boat, though it didn’t leave the dock. She couldn’t resist ending up too far away and not having cell service if there was an emergency and Duke reluctantly accepted that. It wasn’t until Tuesday that they got their next case and ended up in a haunted house. That case led to a lot of revelations about Nathan too, causing both Audrey and Duke to point out his hypocrisy and making Nathan start to think he might just be wrong about Duke. When Audrey got a lead on the Colorado Kid and headed to Colorado, she was quick to take Duke with her. Almost like a romantic weekend away, but with the stress of work involved too. Finding out that the Colarado Kid was her son was huge. She didn’t even know how to begin processing that. 

Duke did his best to be supportive during the whole thing. Trying to help her talk out the whole son revelation, but she wasn’t much in the mood for talking. He did promise to keep it secret though. At least until or unless she was ready to share. He put aside how weird he was feeling about it to help her. The fact that his girlfriend…the woman he loved…had a son in the first place was a big thing. The fact that her son was almost twice his age was just weird. He was from Haven though. He was used to weird, so it was easy to compartmentalize. 

Once they got back from their trip, they learned that Nathan had been killed and it was a race to save him, and even Duke was desperate to do so. No matter the differences they’d had lately, they’d been friends once. They’d known each other their whole lives. He couldn’t let Nathan stay dead any more than Audrey could. On the plus side, bringing him back to life like that thawed Nathan up quite a bit to Duke. 

When Duke got stuck in nineteen fifty five, his first thought was to get a message to Audrey. If anyone could find a way to get him back, she could. Realizing that it was his grandfather whose life he saved and then Nathan showing up too was a mess. When Duke realized that Nathan apparently had a thing with Sarah…Audrey’s past life, he raised an eyebrow at it, but Nathan swore him to secrecy. He seemed to think that Duke would have a problem with it but he didn’t. No matter how much she looked like her, she wasn’t Audrey. He couldn’t be sure that Audrey wouldn’t feel the same way though, so he agreed to keep Nathan’s secret. At least unless it became important for Audrey to know for some reason. 

They had been all go non-stop since they got back to town and Audrey’s time there was ticking down way too fast. Learning that the guard didn’t have their best interests at heart, being mind controlled by a kid, being turned into a teenager, and racing to find a way to save Audrey kept him so busy that it didn’t even dawn on him for over two weeks that Nathan could be James’ father. The father of Audrey’s child. That sparked a major dilemma. He knew that Audrey deserved to know, even if it hurt more than it helped, but he and Nathan were actually almost friends again now. Could he really just betray Nathan’s trust like that? But if he didn’t he was betraying Audrey’s trust. Then there was the fact that he just had no idea how to even begin to tell her about this. Before he could make up his mind, Nathan cornered him, realizing that Duke had to have figured it out, and demanded that Duke let him be the one to tell Audrey. Duke didn’t like it, but learning that the serial killer they’d been chasing was Audrey’s daughter in law put all that on the back-burner.

The night the meteor storm started, Duke wasn’t letting Audrey out of his sight. They had agreed that she would do everything possible to stay out of the barn. Part of him wanted to be out there with Nathan looking for a way around this, dealing with the guard, and everything else, but a bigger part of him wanted to keep her close. He had his gun right next to him as they laid in bed, and he stayed awake while she slept, just holding her and keeping an eye and ear out for trouble. When he heard someone moving around outside, he grabbed his gun and slipped out of bed to check it out. The next thing he knew he was waking up on the floor with Nathan shaking him. “It was Arla that did this,” Duke managed to say as he sat up slowly. Damn tasers. 

“She’s got Audrey now,” Nathan said worriedly. It didn’t matter that Audrey loved Duke. He still loved her just as much. He would still do anything for her. They had to find her. “Okay, meteor storm started last night which means that they’ve gotta be looking for that damn barn. If Audrey goes in…”

“The troubles are gone,” Duke said thoughtfully. 

“/That’s/ what you’re thinking,” Nathan said hatefully. “You’re not worried that we might have just lost Audrey forever? You’re thinking that today might be the day the troubles stop?!” 

Duke clenched his teeth against the accusation. Like that would /ever/ be his priority over Audrey. Partially as a way to get out his anger, he decided a demonstration would be helpful and he slapped Nathan. When Nathan came after him, Duke stepped back. “Hey! Wait! Did you feel that?” he asked pointedly. 

“No,” Nathan snarled. 

“Which means…that the troubles are still here,” he told him, more than a little relieved. “That means Audrey hasn’t gone in the barn yet.” There was still time. “Come on. They’re looking for the barn, right? Now…If Arla put a gun to Audrey’s head and she had to lead her somewhere…where would she take her?” 

It didn’t take long to figure out where they had gone, which then led to discovering that Duke’s boat had been stolen. In any other situation he would have been beyond pissed, but this just made him feel better. Audrey knew his boat. If there was ever a chance of her getting away, it would be there. She knew all of his secret escape hatches and gun stashes. The question was whether she had a chance to get to any of them. Unfortunately, that slowed them down a lot while they looked for another boat to take after them. The fact that Nathan didn’t object to the ‘borrowing without permission’ of another boat said a lot for how worried he was. 

When they found Audrey, she was alone and wanting to go after Arla who’d they’d apparently passed on the way up here. When they found out about the meteor shower and how much worse it would get if they didn’t find James to find out how to stop it, they moved even faster. Duke was glad that Arla had apparently taken their stolen boat and left his. It would at least be more comfortable for three people. When they missed them at the bakery, Duke decided that it was time for the act of his life. They had already spent months chasing Arla. They didn’t have much time and she was good at hiding. They would have to draw her out. He didn’t trust Nathan’s acting skills at all, but Duke was a conman for a reason. He managed to convince Arla that he knew that Audrey had to go in the barn, but she demanded that she save her son first which was what Arla wanted too. 

Everything went according to plan, thankfully, and Duke helped Arla get James to the barn. “You did all this for him?” he tried to make conversation to stall for Audrey and Nathan to get there. 

“I did it for us,” she said gently. “You ever been in love, Crocker?” she asked. She knew that he and Audrey had been dating, but that didn’t mean anything. Love was a very different thing. 

“No,” Duke lied. Never know when a lie like that could come in handy. 

“Well if you had, then you’d understand,” she assured him and Duke resisted the urge to correct her. He loved Audrey with everything he had, and he would do just about anything to save her, but killing dozens of innocent people to steal their skin, kidnapping, torture…no. He would never go that far. And Audrey would hate him if he did. It would destroy her to know what he had done in a misguided attempt to help her. That wasn’t love. Thankfully before the urge got too strong, Audrey and Nathan got there. “Don’t move!” Arla ordered before telling Duke, “Crocker get their guns.” Duke walked slowly towards them while Arla continued making demands. “You’re gonna take him inside the barn, make him better, and then bring him back out to me.” 

“No,” Audrey said firmly. 

“Oh you will,” she said assuredly. “And by the way, if you don’t come back this time? I’ll blow Nathan’s brains out.”

Duke had made it to them by that point and turned with a smirk. “No. You won’t.” When she looked at him in betrayal, Duke explained. “Remember when you were Tommy? Gave me that gun with no bullets in it?” He held up a bullet in his hand and taunted, “I didn’t forget that,” as he stalked slowly towards her. When she tried to shoot him anyway, he snatched the gun out of her hand and threw it aside as Audrey went to check on James. 

“You used me to bring James to her,” Arla realized. 

“Yahtzee,” Duke said smugly as Nathan pulled his gun on Arla. 

“I thought you wanted the troubles to stop,” she accused. 

“I do,” Duke admitted. “But I want Audrey to stick around more. It seems your James is the only one who knows how to make both those things happen.”

When Audrey realized that James needed to go in the barn now if he was going to survive, she took a minute to convince them that she would be able to come back out, but that just gave James the chance to disappear inside the barn alone. “I have to go after him. He’s my only chance,” she explained. 

“Then I’m going with you,” Nathan decided. 

“Me too,” Duke added. 

“You’re not leaving me out here again,” Arla tried to fight Duke’s hold. 

“You’re not going in,” Audrey said harshly. 

“How are you going to stop me once you’re inside the barn?” 

“I guess someone is gonna have to stay out here and watch the skin-purse,” Duke sighed. While he wanted nothing more than to be the one with Audrey, James was Nathan’s son too. He had more right. “Nathan?” he said as they walked by him. “You make sure she comes back out.” 

Duke leaned against the door, watching Arla like a hawk as she paced, not letting down his guard. She couldn’t stay quiet for long. “I need to know what’s going on in there.” 

“Settle down. You’re not the only one with someone inside this damn thing,” Duke admitted. 

“You love Audrey don’t you?” Arla figured out. When Duke just gave her a look, she said, “At least admit it to yourself.” 

“Shut up,” Duke pushed off the barn, pointing the gun at her. “I’m not taking advice from a walking purse.” He wanted nothing to do with her version of love. It was perverse and disgusting and he couldn’t stand the idea of her ascribing that to him. He loved Audrey the right way and she didn’t know the first thing about that. 

Before things could go any further, they were surrounded by the guard intent on keeping Audrey in that barn. Duke was outnumbered eight guns to one and the only solution he could see was to keep them talking as long as possible and hope for a miracle, so he did just that. When Audrey stuck her head out inviting Arla in, that at least took one thing off his mind, even if he did wonder what she had up her sleeve. He knew that Audrey wouldn’t have invited her for no reason. She had to have some kind of plan. Now if he could just think one up out here. 

When Audrey came out, Nathan was right there asking, “What did James say?” 

Duke kept a bit of distance while they were talking about their son but wasn’t far and he noticed Audrey glance at him gratefully. “He was wrong. Killing him…it won’t work.” 

Audrey took a deep breath before starting her goodbyes. She would save the hardest for last though. She wondered at the cruelness of the fates. Even though she and Duke avoided the animosity of her past selves with Crockers, it still came down to one or the other of them in the end and she would never kill him. She would have to kill Audrey instead. Once she was settled, she headed over to Dwight first, then Dave, then Vince before moving on to Nathan. She gave him a tight hug and then kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry I won’t remember you when I get back.” 

“No. This is not goodbye. You can’t go,” Nathan argued frantically. 

“Nathan,” she tried to calm him. “I won’t be alone, alright? I’ll be with our son.” 

“I am gonna die before I let you go,” Nathan said seriously. 

“I know,” she said sadly as she grabbed his gun from his belt and shoved it towards Dwight. “Keep him back.”

Dwight came up and grabbed Nathan, dragging him back and giving her some space to say her hardest goodbye. Once she saw that Nathan was under control, despite how hard he was fighting, she went over to Duke and jumped in his arms, kissing him deeply. “Never forget how much I love you, Duke. Even if I have to.”

“I won’t,” he promised as a single tear dripped down his cheek. “I feel the need to point out that we can get to my boat, put Haven and the barn far behind us and live out the rest of our lives wherever in the world we want to.”

“I can’t do that, Duke. I can’t just let thousands of people die or worse just so that we can be happy,” Audrey told him. 

“I know,” Duke gave a sad smile, leaning his forehead against hers. “I just had to put it out there.”

“Thank you, Duke. You have always been so good to me,” she sniffled. 

“It was easy,” he said softly. “Well, no. Not really. But you know me. I love a challenge.”

Audrey let out a teary laugh. That was pure Duke and just the way she wanted to remember him. “Remember what I said at the beginning Duke. Move on. Live your life and be happy.”

“I’ll do my best,” Duke told her, giving her a soft kiss. “I will love you for the rest of my life, Audrey Parker, and no matter how short our time together has been, it’s been the greatest blessing I’ve ever known. Thank you for taking a chance on me.”

“Goodbye, Duke,” she sniffled through her tears, giving him one last kiss before turning to walk into the barn. 

That was the cue for Nathan to fight his way free of Dwight, but this time Duke was in the way. “We’re not letting her go in there,” Nathan tried to argue with Duke and push past him. 

“Yes. We are,” Duke snapped, raising his gun to point at Nathan. Did Nathan really think that he liked this? That he wouldn’t give just about anything to stop her? When Nathan kept fighting, Duke grabbed him and held tight. “Listen…she is trying to help all these people. She is trying to help this town. And it is /her/ choice. It’s not yours. It’s not mine.” Nathan started calming down so Duke let go as he said, “And I hate it. But it’s still her choice.” 

“You’re in love with her,” Nathan tried to remind him. 

“Yeah,” Duke nodded. 

“Then how can you let her go?” he asked incredulously. “Look at her,” he pushed Duke to turn around as Audrey walked slowly towards the barn. “Look at her!” he yelled with another push. As his eyes caught Audrey’s while she looked back, Nathan took advantage of that and grabbed the gun, causing Audrey to panic and run the last few steps to the barn and jump inside. She could hear Nathan pounding on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Apparently she could control it that way too. 

As Nathan finally gave up on assaulting the barn, Howard said, “I thought it was made clear. That won’t work on the barn.”

“/That/ was made clear,” Nathan told him, getting another idea. “But what about hurting you?” he pointed his gun at Howard. 

Duke was trying to figure out if rushing Nathan would spook him and make him shoot before Duke could get the gun away or not when another shot rang out as Jordan shot Nathan. It distracted Nathan just enough for him to get it and he killed two birds with one stone. He rushed in and grabbed the gun from Nathan just as two shots went over Howard’s shoulder thanks to Duke hitting him. Duke tried to catch Nathan as he fell due to his own gunshot wounds and used the opportunity to shoot Jordan. Howard gave him a grave nod of thanks before he disappeared into the barn too. 

Dwight, Vince, and Dave came to get Jordan and Nathan to get them back to the mainland and to the hospital, but Duke refused to leave. He just knelt there in front of the barn. He was going to stay until it was gone. Until she was gone. He was going to watch over her for as long as she was here. He missed the comforting hands on his shoulders as they walked away and the tears streamed down his face. 

Audrey waited in the barn until Howard appeared in front of her. “Are you ready to go?” he asked her, holding out a hand to her. 

“Yes. I am,” Audrey said through her tears, putting her hand in his. 

As she touched him, Howard frowned and scrutinized her. “We can’t go,” he said. 

“What? Why?” she asked worriedly. 

“One moment,” he said, before stepping away and speaking into his watch. 

As he walked back a woman appeared. She looked roughly Audrey’s age with long black hair, and asked, “You reported a problem?” 

“She’s with child,” Howard told the woman who spun to look at Audrey with a gasp. 

“I…I’m what?” Audrey sucked in a sharp breath. 

“You didn’t know?” the woman asked, getting a shake of the head from Audrey. “This complicates matters greatly.”

“How so?” Audrey asked. 

“This barn must go into the void for the next twenty seven years. During that time you will be rebuilt and your memories overwritten. To do so now would kill the unborn child and that is unacceptable.” 

“Okay…that’s good…but…what about Haven? The meteors? The troubles?” She would never forgive herself if the whole town was destroyed for this, but she would do whatever was necessary to save her child either way. To save her and Duke’s child. 

“Unless the barn goes into the void with you, there is no way to stop that,” Howard said worriedly. 

“But…that’s not…there has to be a way,” she begged. 

“You know the only other way,” Howard told her. 

“To kill Duke? To murder the father of my child? No. That’s not an option. I can’t,” Audrey said in a panic. “Please. There has to be something else. /Anything/ else. Please.” 

“Give me the controls a moment?” the woman asked Howard who nodded. The next thing Audrey knew, she was watching a highlight reel of her memories with Duke, starting from him saving her life when they met and followed the next year of jokes, teasing, arguments, the moment he fell in love with her, when she fell in love with him, him comforting her when she was scared and hurt so many times, including the night he’d told her about the hunter when they got together, skipped over most of the most private moments, but still had a few of them. The most meaningful ones. She saw their one big fight, making up, and finally it focused tightly on their goodbye and what happened outside since, ending with the current image of him kneeling outside looking at the barn dejectedly. It felt like hours even though only a few minutes had passed. 

When Audrey reached instinctively towards the ghostly image, with a look of longing the woman said, “I will take her place.” 

“What?” Howard asked with wide eyes. 

“One of my grandchildren has already been sentenced to the barn for his survival. I will not see another one destroyed,” she said firmly. 

“G-grandchildren?” Audrey’s eyes widened. 

“Yes. Grandchildren,” the woman said softly, reaching a hand to brush Audrey’s hair back. “I’m your mother. Or should I say your base personality’s mother.” 

“Wh-who is she…who am I?” Audrey asked. 

“Her name was Mara. She did a lot of bad things and this was her rehabilitation,” the woman told her. 

“Wh-what’s your name?”

“Charlotte,” she said with a smile before Howard jumped back in. 

“I’m afraid it wouldn’t work,” he told them. “This barn was designed to be linked to Mara. Her consciousness is what powers it.”

“Then give it to me,” Charlotte said. “This barn was also designed to rewrite memories and personalities. You can pull Mara’s consciousness from Audrey and give it to me.”

“You can’t have more than one base consciousness,” Howard pointed out. “If I did that, it would completely erase you.”

“I know,” she said. 

“I can’t ask you to do that,” Audrey said sadly. She would accept it. For the sake of Duke and their unborn child, but she had to make it clear that she wasn’t asking and wouldn’t hold it against her if she changed her mind. 

“You’re not,” Charlotte said with a soft smile, cupping Audrey’s cheek with her hand. “Once that child is born, and perhaps before, you will understand just how much a mother will sacrifice for her children.”

“I…I’m sorry,” Audrey sniffled. It seemed like all she was doing today was crying. “Wh-what will happen to me? I mean…my memories. My life.” 

“Your base identity of Mara, along with all of your other past identities will be transferred to Charlotte’s mind. You will be Audrey and only Audrey,” Howard explained. 

“What will it feel like?” 

“Going to sleep for a moment and then waking up,” Howard told her. 

“And…James?” 

“Must stay here,” Howard explained. “The creature that killed him was powerful beyond reckoning. This is still the only place he can exist.”

“Would he still be…my son? Even if I’m not Sarah anymore?”

“Yes and no,” Howard shrugged. “It would depend on your point of view.” He looked up for a moment before returning his attention to them. “We are running out of time. What is your decision?” 

“Are you sure?” Audrey asked Charlotte. 

“Positive,” Charlotte nodded. 

“Okay. I’ll do it,” Audrey agreed, placing a protective hand over her stomach. Howard nodded and placed a hand on each of their heads. When Audrey blinked her eyes open again the door to the barn appeared. “Do I…” she asked gesturing towards it. 

“Go,” Howard nodded. “You are free to live the remainder of your life as you wish.” 

Audrey smiled and couldn’t resist hugging him. “Thank you,” she said gratefully. “And Charlotte?” 

“She is already in processing, having her new memories written for her next life. She will come to Haven in twenty seven years just as you did, and pick up your work. Goodbye, Audrey. And good luck.”

She nodded at him in thanks and turned towards the door. As soon as she walked out, it closed behind her and the barn faded from view. “A-Audrey?” Duke asked stumbling to his feet. 

“It’s me,” she smiled brightly, running to him and jumping into his arms. “I’m not going. I’m staying right here,” she promised as he hugged her tightly and swung her around before setting her down and kissing her desperately. 

Once that was done, he sobered quite a bit. “Does this mean we need to run?” He didn’t much like the idea of just letting them die in the meteor storm. 

“No. It’s over. Look,” she pointed at the sky. “The troubles should be gone too.”

“But…how?” Duke asked amazed. 

“We’ll talk about it when we get home?” she suggested hopefully. This wasn’t a story to be told out here in the middle of nowhere with blood still staining the ground. Plus she wanted to see how Nathan was doing. No matter how pissed she was at him, he was still her friend, though whether he would stay her friend remained to be seen. 

“Yeah. Home. Perfect,” Duke grinned, wrapping an arm around her, pulling her to his side as they walked back towards his boat. While he piloted it, Audrey stayed right there with him, and the ride was spent in happy silence, both of them reaching out to touch each other and lean against each other often.


	5. Chapter 5

Once the Rouge was tied up back at the dock outside Audrey’s apartment, she asked Duke, “Before we get to the story, can you call and check on Nathan? Just to be sure he’s okay?” 

“Yeah. Sure,” he nodded, pulling out his phone. He completely understood why she didn’t want to call. She didn’t want anyone to know she was back right away. Who knew what they would do in their fear about the troubles with her being here. That would be a problem to worry about later. Once he understood how and why they could make a plan. Once he hung up, he told her, “He’s still in surgery, but he’s expected to survive. Too bad that’s the first thing he’ll feel now that the troubles are gone,” he chuckled. 

Audrey laughed and shook her head. It was the kind of joke only Duke would make. “Okay, so…story,” she let out a heavy breath as she leaned against the counter. Now that it was time to tell him, she was more than a little nervous. They’d never talked about kids and they hadn’t really been together that long in the grand scheme of things, despite the fact that it felt like forever. He just looked at her expectantly, giving her a chance to gather her thoughts. “The thing is…someone took my place.”

“Took your place how? Who?” Duke asked confused. 

“My mother…sort of. My…original personality’s mother might be more accurate.”

“Okay…how? And why now? Why not for Lucy or Sarah?” 

“Well the whole barn thing was sort of a punishment and rehabilitation for some bad things that Mara, my original self, did. I don’t know what. But for the how, all I know is that Mara, along with Lucy, Sarah, and others I don’t know about were basically removed from my mind and implanted in hers since Mara’s identity is what the barn was attuned to.” 

“Okay, that makes sense. Well…no. Not really. But I doubt it’s gonna get any better, so go on. Why now?” Duke asked. 

“Because…because if they had taken me into the void, where the barn goes in between times, it would have…um…hurt…the baby,” she said hesitantly, placing a protective hand over her stomach and biting her lip as she waited for a response from him. 

Duke sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes went wide. He reached back and felt around behind him for the table that he knew was there and followed it, partially leaning on it until he half-sat, half-fell into a seat, not taking his eyes off her. “B-baby…” he breathed out. “As in…in there?” he pointed to her stomach. Audrey nodded slowly. “O-our baby…” he said almost inaudibly, but then he couldn’t help but ask, “Right?” 

“Yeah, Duke. Our baby,” she said, not offended for him asking. He was in shock and completely off balance and they /had/ only been together for less than two months. 

“Our baby,” he said again, finally remembering how to breathe as his light-headedness eased. He stood up slowly and walked over to her, placing his hand over hers on her stomach. 

She moved hers out of the way and put it on top of his as her other hand went to his cheek. “Are you…okay?” 

Duke’s response was to pull her in for a hard kiss. When he pulled back, both his hands were on her cheeks and his forehead was resting against hers. “Our baby,” he said happily. “We’re having a baby.” 

“We’re having a baby,” she confirmed with a happy laugh. 

“Oh god, we’re having a baby,” Duke said as the panic started to creep in. “I don’t know what to do with a baby. I live on a boat for crying out loud. Can babies even live on boats?”

Audrey laughed and shook her head, helping him back to the booth to sit and she perched on his knee. His first reaction after the shock had been telling enough that the panic now didn’t bother her. “Just take a deep breath and relax, Duke. We have at least seven or eight months before we have to worry about any of that. That’s plenty of time to figure things out.” 

“Yeah. Okay. Eight months. That’s a long time,” Duke followed her instructions and took some deep breaths, resting his forehead on her shoulder as she ran a hand through her hair. He took a few minutes to wrap his mind around it before he asked amusedly, “Any more bombshells to drop on me, today?” 

“Nope. I’m pretty sure that’s it,” Audrey chuckled. 

“What about James? Is he okay?” Duke thought to ask. 

“He’s okay, but he can never leave the barn. Whatever killed him is apparently pretty nasty and that’s the only place he can exist anymore,” she said sadly. 

“And now that you’re not connected to the barn anymore either…you’ll never see him again?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Audrey. I can’t imagine how hard that must be.” 

“Thank you, Duke,” she smiled, leaning her head against his. “At least he’s alive and okay somewhere.” 

“So what are we going to do now? Are we staying in Haven? If so, we need to do some damage control before you come back out into the open.” 

“I would like to stay in Haven. If that’s okay with you,” Audrey said. 

“I’m good with Haven. At least for now. When I’m ready for a change we can talk about it then,” Duke assured her. 

“Okay. Then I think what we need to do is find someone high enough in the guard to be able to talk to them. Explain that it’s over without me having to leave. Let them tell the other members.” 

“Yeah, about that,” Duke huffed a laugh. “We kinda found out who the big leader of the guard is while you were in the barn.”

“Who?” 

“Vince.”

“Wait, what?” Audrey asked, shocked. “Vince? The gentle giant who likes to draw, runs a newspaper, and thinks hunting is barbaric. That Vince?” 

“Believe me, it was a shock for me too,” Duke told her. 

“Wow…okay,” Audrey said as she tried to wrap her head around it. “I guess I wasn’t the only one with bombshells to drop.” Duke barked a laugh at that. “Do you think you can invite him here to talk? It would probably be safer that way than me going into town.”

“Yeah, I can try,” Duke told her. “Want me to call him now?” 

“Please? Not that I don’t love the Rouge, but I’d rather not be trapped here for longer than I have to be,” she said wryly. 

Duke nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Vince. He wasn’t exactly going to drop everything and run whenever Duke Crocker calls, no matter how important Duke told him it was, so he agreed to come see him the following afternoon, which Audrey could live with. She planned to spend the rest of the time until then with Duke, reaffirming that they’re alive and together, but first she had one more question for Duke. “Did you know that Nathan was James’ father?” Since he was with Nathan back in nineteen fifty five, it was a reasonable question. 

“Yes,” Duke admitted, but held up his hands in a gesture of peace before she could get upset. “It took me a week or two after we got back from the past to put the pieces together, and I was going to tell you. I was just trying to figure out how, but then Nathan realized that I knew and asked to be the one to tell you. I figured it was his right, so I agreed, but then all hell broke loose and apparently he didn’t get around to it.”

Audrey sighed at his explanation and nodded. He was right that it was Nathan’s place to tell her. If things had been less hectic, then she would have still been annoyed that he didn’t push it. Give Nathan a ‘you tell her or I will’ ultimatum, but they really had had a lot on their minds so she would let it go. “Okay. That’s fair.” She waffled on asking another question, but in the end she couldn’t resist. “When you were in the past…were you ever interested in Sarah too?”

“What? No,” Duke shook his head as though it should be obvious. “She may have looked like you, but she wasn’t you. Sure there were similarities, but…she wasn’t you.” 

Audrey smiled brightly and leaned her head on his shoulder, snuggling down into his arms. “Is it weird if I say I’m glad?” 

Duke laughed and kissed her forehead. “No, sweetheart. It’s not weird at all.” He got why she needed to ask. After the way Nathan went for Sarah when he claimed to be in love with Audrey, it made sense that she would want to be sure, but Duke never understood Nathan in the best of times, much less on that subject. 

“Thank you, by the way,” she whispered, pressing a soft kiss to his neck. 

“For what?” Duke asked running a hand through her hair. 

“For respecting my choice back there,” she told him. 

“Of course,” Duke said. “I would always back your decisions. But I do have to admit, if I’d known about the baby it might have been a different story.”

“If I had known about the baby it would have been different for me too,” she assured him. “And the baby does give you a say over what I do too, within reason.” 

“So if I were to ask you to stop being a cop while you’re pregnant, would that be unreasonable?” Duke asked. 

“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to want to /talk/ about it, no,” Audrey told him. “/Is/ that what you want?” 

“Well…I guess. Kinda…I mean, how many times have you almost died out there? Putting yourself in harms way all the time.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Audrey agreed. “But remember the troubles are gone now. That means it won’t be nearly as dangerous.” 

“But not completely safe either,” Duke pointed out. “Just getting knocked down by a suspect, if you fall the wrong way or something…”

“That’s true,” Audrey admitted. “How about this. Once I get further along I will absolutely go on desk duty or take a leave of absence or something along those lines. For now, once I can get back to town, I’ll see a doctor and see what kind of risks there are this early and then we can make a decision on when I step back.” 

“That’s reasonable,” Duke agreed. “I don’t really know how risky it is this early either.” He was just glad that she was letting him be this involved. 

“Just know I get a little cranky when I’m bored,” she chuckled. “And I doubt the pregnancy hormones will help much either.”

Duke laughed and shook his head. “Well we do own a bar slash restaurant. And a boat. I’m sure we can find something to keep you from getting too bored.”

“Did you just say /we/ own?” Audrey realized. 

“Right. I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Marry me?” he asked. 

“You…um…huh?” Audrey leaned back to look at him, blinking in shock. 

“Let’s get married.” 

“I…I don’t want you to marry me just because of the baby,” she worried. 

“I’m not,” Duke assured her. “This is just moving things forward a bit. I love you, Audrey, and I plan to spend the rest of my life with you. Baby or no baby. If…if that’s what you want.” 

“Yes,” she said quickly. It was crazy. They’d only been together for a couple months, but it felt like so much longer. They’d been friends for over a year. They’d been through so much together over that year. Bonded through battle and death and trials. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Duke was /the one/. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” 

Duke captured her in a searing kiss before getting up and carrying her towards the bedroom and the next little while was spent in the best kind of celebration. Once they were done and catching their breath, she said, “Duke?”

“Hmm?” 

“As much as I would love to not move from this bed again…I’m starving.”

“Oh, crap. You haven’t eaten anything all day have you?” Duke realized. She had been kidnapped at some point last night or this morning, held prisoner, run around looking for her son, and then in the barn. “I’ll go make us something.” He hadn’t actually eaten today either. 

“You don’t need to go to much trouble. Just something simple is fine,” she told him. She knew how much he enjoyed cooking, so she didn’t suggest making a sandwich. He always got so cutely offended whenever he caught her eating stuff like that. 

“Okay. I’ll do simple tonight, mostly because good prep takes time. But tomorrow night we’re having a real celebration. Deal?” Duke grinned. 

“Works for me,” she agreed. He leaned down for a lingering kiss before throwing some shorts on and heading for the galley. She lounged for a minute longer before pulling herself out of bed and grabbing one of his longer shirts that came down to her mid-thigh and went to join him. She sidled up behind him, wrapping her arms around his stomach and pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades. After a quick dinner, they were right back to bed and didn’t leave again until almost lunchtime the next day since Duke surprised her with breakfast in bed again. It wasn’t something that he did every day, but usually at least once a week on her days off. 

Duke started on the prep for dinner while he was cooking lunch and it wasn’t long after lunch when Vince got there. Duke told Audrey to stay put for a minute and went out to meet him. “Vince,” Duke nodded in greeting. 

“What’s so important, Duke?” Vince asked suspiciously. 

“It’s a long story. Sort of. Come on in. Just…remember it’s not what you think,” Duke told him. 

“You don’t really think I trust you enough to go inside your boat where you could have any kind of traps waiting for me?” Vince scoffed. 

“Come on, Vince. Why would I do that?” Duke asked incredulously. 

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you found out I’m the leader of the guard who all have that tattoo you’ve been so obsessed with? Because the guard, under my command, went to force Audrey into that barn? Because you’re still reeling from losing her and are likely to be unpredictable? Because you’re a Crocker, and Crockers have always been enemies of the guard? Take your pick.” 

Duke tilted his head with a half-shrug. “Okay…those are all valid points…but no. I don’t have anything against you unless you want me dead.” 

“If I wanted you dead, you would be dead,” Vince said matter-of-factly. 

“I know,” Duke admitted. “Now are you coming in or not?” 

“Just come in, Vince,” Audrey said from the doorway when the big man still seemed to be hesitating. 

“Audrey?” he asked in shock. “How are you…but…” he looked to the sky as if to wonder why it hadn’t fallen down around them yet. 

“It’s complicated,” Duke told him, waving him towards the entrance and this time Vince went. Duke didn’t want Audrey going out since he didn’t know if Vince had set up snipers ‘just in case’ for this meeting and didn’t want someone to see her and get spooked and take a shot. 

Once they were all seated, Vince asked again, “How is this possible? If you didn’t go in the barn, the meteors…and I’ve had reports from dozens of people that the troubles are gone…”

“Someone else took my place,” she told him. “Next time the troubles come in twenty seven years, it will be someone new that comes to help with them.” 

“But…it’s always been you. If they were going to change, why did the barn come for you at all?” Vince asked confusedly. 

“That’s…well…” she looked at Duke, not sure if he wanted it known. 

“She’s pregnant,” Duke told him, reaching over to take Audrey’s hand. “They wouldn’t take her with her being pregnant because it would hurt the baby.” 

“Oh! Oh my!” Vince said in shock, reverting back to his kindly grandfather persona rather than leader of the guard. “That’s…I suppose congratulations are in order then.”

“Thank you,” Audrey said with a smile. 

“I assume you wanted to bring me here for this so that I can get the word out to the guard that it’s safe for her to be here?” Vince guessed. 

“Yeah. If you would. I’d hate for someone to get trigger happy and freak out thinking the troubles are coming back when they see her,” Duke said. 

“Or think that I backed out of going in the barn and come after me for that,” Audrey added. 

“I understand. I’ll put the word out immediately. I would give it a few days for things to settle and word to get around before making yourself known if I were you though,” Vince suggested. 

“I figured on that,” Audrey chuckled. “Just…don’t tell anyone about the baby yet? I’m sure we don’t want anyone to figure out that’s why they wouldn’t take me in the barn. If someone spills to the next person and they intentionally get pregnant to get out of it…who knows if anyone will be able to take their place next time.”

“Understood,” Vince nodded gravely. “Are you planning on telling anyone else?”

“That I’m pregnant, maybe just close friends for now until I’m further along. That it’s why the barn didn’t take me? No. Absolutely not. We’re taking that secret to our graves,” Audrey told him. 

“Then we will need a story for the guard,” Vince told them. 

“How about just telling them that they change out people every few hundred years and it was time, but she had to go in for the changeover anyway?” Duke suggested. 

“That could work,” Vince thought about it. “It does bring into question why the goodbyes once she had been in there for a while though.” 

“I had to prove that I was worthy to stay by being willing to make the sacrifice,” Audrey chimed in. Given that it seemed to be the entire theme of the barn in the first place, it was reasonable enough. 

“I can work with that,” Vince nodded. “I should go start making calls. And I’d appreciate if you can come see me soon so we can make a sketch to know who to expect next time,” he went to get up. 

“Wait,” Audrey called. “Can you tell me…how’s Nathan?” 

“Very lucky that the troubles went away otherwise the guard would have strung him up for interfering the way he did,” Vince huffed. 

“That’s not what she meant,” Duke said impatiently. 

“He came through the surgery and will survive, but he’ll be in the hospital for at least another week. Jordan is in about the same condition,” Vince told them before looking at Duke. “Thank you for not killing her, by the way.” That was the only reason he had given Duke the courtesy of coming out here so quickly. 

“You know me. I only kill people when I have no choice. I just needed to put her down so she would stop shooting,” Duke shrugged. “Not that I would have been too broken up if she’d died under the circumstances, but I wasn’t going to do it intentionally.” 

“And that is why I’ve never allowed the guard to kill you, no matter how much they wished to,” Vince nodded with a smile. “If you’d like, I’ll let Nathan know that you’re back as well and that you’ll be by to see him in a few days?” 

“Yes, please Vince. Thank you,” Audrey told him as he left. 

“You know,” Duke smirked, pulling Audrey into his lap. “Since you’re trapped on the boat for the next few days anyway…why don’t we take her out for a while. Open sea, fresh air, maybe find a few secluded spots of land…”

“And you’ll show me your secret oyster field?” Audrey grinned. 

“Hey, now. That was a one time bribe offer,” Duke teased. 

“And I was so looking forward to those blue point oysters drizzled in epsom,” she pouted. 

Duke laughed. “Audrey, you know I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. You want to see the oyster field that’ll be our first stop.” 

“Sounds like a plan to me,” she kissed him soundly. 

“Then I’ll go untie us and we’ll be off. Just give it about ten minutes for us to get away from the shore before you come up,” Duke told her. 

She used the time to tidy up the galley while she waited and then headed up to the helm, sitting up on the wall next to Duke, leaning against the railing. “How far is it to the oyster field?” she asked curiously. 

“It’s about half a day out at an average pace,” Duke told her. “Once I get us out of the more trafficked waters, I’ll get the course set and let her run while I start dinner.”

“Is that safe? Leaving the wheel like that?” she asked curiously. 

Duke chuckled. “Sweetheart, I usually run this boat alone on worldwide trips. I’d never get anywhere if I had to stop and drop anchor every time I had to leave the helm. I’ve got her rigged up.”

“Rigged up how?” she asked interestedly. 

“Whenever I leave her moving, I keep all three of these things on me. This one starts pinging whenever the radar picks up anything nearby, the faster the ping the closer it is. This one is an underwater doppler. It blares an alarm whenever there’s something shallow enough to hit the underside of the boat. This one is a radio receiver in case anyone calls in, but I’d have to go back up to respond,” Duke explained. He had every intention of teaching her how to run the boat too over time, so he went into a little more detail than he did for just anyone. 

“That’s convenient,” she realized. She had never really stopped to think about how he got on all alone at sea for so long at a time. 

“I do usually stop and drop anchor at night though unless I’m on a rush run,” he admitted. “I don’t want to risk the alarms not waking me up or being to groggy and slow to get up there in time.” 

“That’s understandable,” she said relieved. She was glad that he was smart about it at least, not that she thought he wouldn’t be. He may put on a reckless devil may care act, but he never would have survived as long as he had at sea if he wasn’t careful. She had never felt anything but completely safe in his hands on this boat, whether it was moving or not. 

Over the next couple hours she asked a lot of questions about the different instruments, both the ones running and the ones not, and she wasn’t particularly surprised that he wasn’t using any of the navigation. “In the local waters here I don’t need them. I know these waters like the back of my hand.” 

“How do you know where to go though when there’s nothing but open sea all around us?” she asked curiously, not doubting his skill at all, but finding it interesting and impressive.

“Okay, look, come over here,” he waved her over and put her in front of the wheel. “Look over there into the distance. What do you see?” 

“The lighthouse,” she told him. 

“Exactly. Now look at where the side of the boat lines up with it. That means we’re heading away from it at thirty five degrees,” he explained. “Now look right over there and tell me what you see.”

“Some kind of landmass. It’s too far away to make out clearly though,” she told him. 

“That’s Fisher’s reef. We’re currently tracking at at a seventy five degree angle in that direction. Now look over that way,” he pointed again. 

“I see mountains way out there.” 

“That tall one right there in the middle? That’s White Hill Mountain,” Duke told her. 

“So you don’t need the navigation because you use the landmarks to navigate,” she summed up. 

“Exactly. As long as I can see at least two points I’m good. If it’s too foggy to see, I have to use the navigation, but otherwise, it’s not really necessary.” 

“So usually you only use it when you’re going way out or traveling to other places?” 

“Yeah. If it makes you nervous, I can use it though,” he told her, wondering if that was why all the questions. 

“No, I’m good,” she assured him. “I trust you, Duke. You know what you’re doing. I’m just curious. I can stop asking if it bothers you.” 

“Doesn’t bother me a bit, sweetheart,” Duke chuckled. “I plan to teach you everything about this boat. The pace and order of things is completely up to you.” 

“You think you might let me drive her one day?” she asked hopefully. 

“Sure thing,” Duke promised. “But don’t expect to go it alone until you have plenty of practice. Maybe on the way back I’ll let you take the helm for a while.” 

“Really?” she grinned. 

“Really,” he said amusedly. He wasn’t really picky about people piloting the boat while he was right there. It was doing so in his absence that he usually tried to avoid, but she was different. “But for now, it’s time to go start dinner.” He grabbed the three pieces of equipment and she followed him down. 

They ate dinner on the deck in the fresh air, and Duke was about to pop the cork on some wine before he remembered that she couldn’t drink. After dinner they curled up on the couch to watch the sun set and just had a peaceful evening. A few hours after dark, Duke went up to pull the boat to a stop and drop anchor before they went to bed, not that they went to sleep for quite a while. The next morning, Duke woke Audrey up early, and laughed as she protested while he dragged her up to the deck. “What are we doing up so early. The sun isn’t even up yet,” she complained. 

“That’s the point,” Duke said amusedly. “Just sit here and drink your coffee. You’ll see.” 

It was about ten minutes before she was wide awake and watching the horizon in awe. “Wow,” was all she could say. 

“Sunrise at sea is the most beautiful sight in nature,” Duke said with a happy sigh, leaning his head against hers. “I wanted you to see it.” 

“Thank you, Duke,” she smiled. “It is amazing. And it’s so peaceful out here. I see why you love it so much.” 

“I’m glad,” he kissed the top of her head. It would make for a much happier marriage if she understood and even shared his love for the sea. Once the sun was up all the way, Duke headed inside to whip up some breakfast after refilling her coffee and gave her some time to just enjoy the peace of the moment. After breakfast, he pulled up the anchor and got the boat moving again. They were only an hour out from the oyster field now. They could have made it last night but the tide would have been too high for it to be any use. Once they pulled up as close as he dared and dropped the anchor again, he realized that he hadn’t thought this all the way through. Since this was a secret spot, there wasn’t a dock which meant they had to get from the boat to the shore. “Okay, so usually, I just get out the wet suit and free dive it from this point, but…”

“You get in this water in December?” she interrupted incredulously. 

“Sure. The wetsuits have thermal protection, but it’s still pretty cold, and given that you’re not used to it, and I’m not sure what kind of effect those temperatures might have on the baby, so we’re gonna have to take the dinghy.” 

“Something else to ask the doctor when we get back,” Audrey realized as Duke got the smaller boat down into the water. 

“I’ll go down first. Watch the rope. It can get slippery,” he told her as he tossed the rope ladder. 

Audrey watched everything he did, partly because watching him work was just sexy, but also so she would have some idea of how to do things for herself if she ever needed to. At least she wasn’t completely useless when it came to rowing as they headed for the shore. They spent the rest of the morning digging for oysters before Duke pulled out a thermos and a small packed lunch for them and then worked for a few more hours as he showed her how to do it. 

Audrey was having a lot of fun, but then Duke had this way of making almost anything fun. There were more than a few mud fights and plenty of teasing and joking as they worked and by the time they were taking the dingy back to the rouge, they had a pretty good haul. Well, a pretty good haul for only two people digging for fun at least. They had more than enough for dinner, and would still have over half left over. 

Duke taught Audrey to clean the oysters and she did that while he got everything else ready for dinner. By the time he had the prep done, she had enough of the oysters cleaned for tonight and he took them to start them steaming. For lack of anything better to do while he was cooking, Audrey kept cleaning the oysters and got about half of what was left done by the time dinner was ready and after dinner they finished them together before heading to bed. The next morning, Duke woke her up just before sunrise again, and they had coffee and watched it together. She decided that she could definitely get used to this. 

“So I’m thinking for today, I’ll just pull anchor, take up out to open waters and we just be for a day or two. What do you think?” Duke suggested. 

“I think that sounds perfect,” Audrey sighed happily, curled up to his side. “This whole thing is perfect. Just what I needed to unwind and destress after everything. Thank you, Duke.” 

“Anytime, Audrey. Really. I’m always happy to take some time at sea to chill.” 

“I think that’s why we work so well,” Audrey told him. “I know I have a tendency to overwork and stress myself out, and you’re so good at destressing. You don’t let things bother you and help me to relax too.” 

“Happy to oblige,” Duke chuckled. “If I have my way, you’re going to be doing a lot more relaxing from now on. And now that the troubles are gone, you have no more excuses to work yourself to death. Normal police work in this town is pretty boring. You’ll see.” 

“Well in about seven or eight months I’ll have plenty else to keep me busy anyway,” she pointed out amusedly. 

“That we will,” Duke agreed. “And I have to figure out how to babyproof a boat in the meantime.”

Audrey laughed. “I’m sure that’s going to be an adventure.” 

“Are we going to live on the boat or above the Gull?” Duke asked since they were on the subject. 

“I don’t know yet. I say we look into the idea of babyproofing the boat and if it’s possible and not too difficult, we can live on the boat. Otherwise we can live above the Gull until he or she is a little older,” Audrey suggested. 

“That’s fair,” Duke agreed. 

“And I want you to know…even if we can’t take the baby out on the boat for a few years, I do understand if you need to go out for a while sometimes,” she assured him. 

“Yeah. Thanks. I mean, that would definitely be appreciated,” Duke said gratefully. 

“Were you wanting to get married before or after the baby is born?” she asked. 

“I’m thinking before. I mean, I’m not really one for the whole big fancy church wedding thing, unless that’s something you have your heart set on,” Duke shrugged. 

“It’s not. What were you thinking we could do?” she asked. 

“I was just thinking a simple ceremony on the deck, big party, and that’s it.” 

“Well we couldn’t really get that many guests on the boat for it, but what if we do the ceremony with just a few friends on the boat and then do the big open party at the Gull?” she suggested. 

“Yeah, okay. That works. That shouldn’t take more than a week or two to set up, so whenever you want to do it is good with me.”

“How about New Years?” she suggested. “It’s a good symbolic date, especially since I’m starting a whole new life now that I’m not some doppelganger who pops up to exist for only a year and it’s a little over three weeks away so that’s plenty of time.” 

“Sounds good to me. You gonna be picky about what I wear?” Duke asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“I don’t know,” Audrey huffed a laugh. “How about you pick something and then I’ll yay or nay it?” 

“Fair enough. I’ll start thinking about it.”

“You know…from all the stories I’ve heard, I wouldn’t think this would be so easy,” Audrey mused. 

“It is easy when you’re not picky. It only turns into a nightmare when you start talking china patterns and ice sculptures, and fancy catering crap.” 

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, the important part is that we’ll be married at the end of the day, the rest is just window dressing.” 

“Exactly,” Duke grinned. “Glad to see you starting to get on board with the easy-going way of life.” 

“There has to be something we’re not thinking of,” Audrey said thoughtfully. 

“You planning to change your name?” Duke asked. 

“Yeah, I think so. I mean, Audrey Parker was never really me anyway, but Audrey Crocker could be,” she smiled. 

“I like it,” Duke smirked. “And it opens up the option to use Parker for a baby name if we have a boy if you wanted to honor that part of yourself.” 

“That’s an idea,” Audrey considered. “We might as well table the baby name discussion until we find out what we’re having though.”

“Then I think we’re pretty much covered. I mean other than getting the rings and someone to do the ceremony and all, but that’ll have to wait until we get back to town.” 

“Guest list,” Audrey realized. “For the ceremony, I’ve got Nathan, Dwight, Vince, and Dave, and that’s it. And their plus ones I guess.”

“Yeah I don’t really do friends, so I don’t have anybody to add to that. Well, I guess I could invite my brother and his wife. Now that the troubles are gone it should be safe enough for him to come to Haven. But the party after will be open to anybody, yeah?” 

“That’s what I’m thinking yeah.” 

“And we’ll do the vows, right over there,” Duke pointed to the bow.

“And we can put the seating out here on the deck,” she suggested. “I wasn’t planning to wear one of those long fancy dresses anyway so the steps won’t be an issue.” 

“Perfect.” 

Once they had found their spot to sit for the next couple days they had lunch and then Audrey grabbed a book to take up to the deck while Duke went to sit on the bow and meditate for a while before he came to a decision. Audrey watched curiously as he went inside and came back out with his family journal. When she saw him ripping out pages and dropping them in the ocean, she went over and wrapped an arm around his waist in support. “I’m starting a new family journal. One that tells my descendants /not/ to kill troubled people unless there’s no other choice. One that tells them to work /with/ whoever comes to help, rather than to kill them,” he said hauntedly. 

“That’s a good idea,” Audrey said gently, leaning her head on his shoulder. “A fresh start for the Crockers.” The rest of that day and the next were spent much the same way. Long talks and relaxing with occasional breaks to do their own thing for a while and by the time they got back to Haven four days after they left, they were both much more relaxed than they had been in over a year since all this mess started. 

After a quick call to Vince to make sure it was safe for Audrey to come out, they headed into town to visit Nathan in the hospital. Duke tried to argue his way out of the visit since the last time he saw Nathan he was pointing a gun at his head, but Audrey wasn’t hearing of it. She reminded him that they’d have to get over it by the wedding in a few weeks anyway, so they might as well start while Nathan was in no position to start a fight. 

Audrey gave a quick knock on the door before creaking it open. “Nathan?” she asked as she stepped in. 

“Audrey!” he breathed out happily as he was just walking back towards the bed, presumably from the bathroom, and leaning heavily on the IV stand he was hooked up to. That didn’t stop him from detouring to hug her though. “Vince said you were okay, but I didn’t quite believe him. What happened?” 

“Someone else took over the job. I figured Vince would have told you,” Audrey said. 

“Oh he did. And it reeks of cover story,” Nathan chuckled as Duke and Audrey helped him back into bed. 

“Well the cover story is the only story. The truth is too dangerous to let out and the part about someone else taking over is true at least,” Audrey told him. 

“So how’s it feel to be able to feel just in time to be recovering from three bullet wounds?” Duke asked amusedly in an attempt to change the subject. 

“It’s great,” Nathan told him seriously. “Just being able to feel anything after so long is so nice, I don’t even care if it’s pain.” 

“So how much longer are you going to be in here?” Audrey asked. 

“They say another week.”

“Good. Then you’ll be out in time for the wedding,” Duke grinned. 

“W-wedding? What wedding? Who’s getting married?” Nathan asked confused. 

“Duke and I,” Audrey grinned, wrapping her arm around her fiancee’s waist. 

“What? But…that’s not…” Nathan stammered. 

“Told you he wouldn’t take it well,” Duke stage-whispered to Audrey. 

“But he just let you go,” Nathan said incredulously. “He was perfectly willing to let you walk away forever. And now you’re marrying him?” 

“/He/ unlike /some/ people, respected my choice,” Audrey said firmly. “He understands that I could never live with my life coming at the expense of thousands of other. /He/ actually cares about how /I/ feel rather than just his own happiness.” 

“You’re mad at me,” Nathan realized. “For trying to save your life.”

“No. For being willing to sacrifice thousands of other lives to save mine. For thinking that you had the right to decide that for me,” Audrey told him. 

“I couldn’t just let you go,” Nathan said as though the very idea was poison. 

“And you need to understand that it wasn’t your choice to make,” she said bluntly. “I wanted to come make sure you were okay, because you are still my friend, Nathan, but you have some serious thinking to do if you want to continue being my friend. If you can accept that my life is my own and you don’t get to run it, then you and a plus one are invited to the wedding. It’s on New Years Eve on the Cape Rouge. Not sure what time yet…”

“Sunset,” Duke chimed in. 

“Sunset,” Audrey agreed with a nod. “But if you’re going to continue the way you have been, it might be best if you give it a miss.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I hope you feel better soon, Nathan.” 

“Wait,” Nathan called. “James?” 

Audrey sighed sadly and stepped back over. “He can’t survive outside the barn. He’ll never be able to leave.” When Nathan closed his eyes against the pain of losing his son she reached over to squeeze his hand. “I’m sorry, Nathan. At least he’s alive and happy.” 

Nathan nodded, gripping her hand back, as he came to terms with it. Given that his son was conceived decades before he was even born, knowing him had been a long shot, but it still hurt. “Thank you,” he whispered. 

“Get some rest, Nathan,” she said gently before leaving. 

As they headed out of the building Duke asked, “You don’t think that was a little harsh?” 

“No. I don’t. That’s not the first time we’ve had that conversation and I don’t intend to have it again,” she told him. “What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t knocked his aim off and he had shot Agent Howard? How many people would have died?” 

“You’re right,” Duke admitted. “I get it. I’m just saying…It’s not like I wasn’t tempted to do the same thing.” 

“I know. But you didn’t,” she reminded him, steering him towards the jewelry store. 

Duke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He could get rings a lot cheaper with the same quality through his smuggling contacts, but if she wanted to do it this way, he would oblige. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it. They spent about an hour going through the rings before they settled on a set. The only thing Duke insisted on was that it be a flat band that wasn’t too thick. He didn’t want it to get caught on things when he was working on the boat. Beyond that, he just bought what she wanted. Before they left the store, he slid the engagement ring on her finger and put the wedding rings in his pocket until the big day. Their next stop was the Herald. Audrey wanted them to print a wedding announcement as well as an invitation to the party at the Gull. They invited them both to the wedding at the same time and Dave suggested a few people who could perform the ceremony. The last stop of the day was to the clerk of court to get their marriage license. Audrey wanted to get all the important stuff out of the way as well as just be seen around town so that things could go back to normal quicker. 

They had been planning to call Dwight later, but ended up running into him outside the courthouse so passed the invitation along. Audrey had convinced Duke that it would be good to invite his brother, despite their estrangement, so he called his brother once they got back to the Rouge. The next morning, Audrey called the doctor to make her first prenatal appointment while Duke made some calls to find a wedding officiant. By the time they were sitting down to lunch, everything was all set for the wedding and after lunch, Audrey headed into the station to let them know that she would still be on leave for at least a week. She didn’t want to officially come back until she had a conversation with the doctor next week. When she got back to the Cape Rouge she found Duke going through a bag from the bookstore. “What’d you get?” she asked curiously. 

He started pulling out books. First he handed her, ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’, followed by three different baby care books, and one specifically for babyproofing hard to babyproof spaces. “I figure that should do us for now.”

“Thank you, Duke,” Audrey said gratefully. “This is perfect.” She sat back and started to read the pregnancy book and when Duke sat down with the babyproofing book, she leaned against him comfortably. They spent the rest of the afternoon that way, often sharing something relevant from their respective books. By the end of the night, Duke was relatively certain he could babyproof the boat well enough to be safe. There would be areas that it would be impossible, but since those areas had sealed hatches, it wouldn’t be an issue. The hardest part would be raising the ladders a couple feet off the deck so the baby couldn’t reach them and start climbing. The stairs to the bow section would also be removed since that section didn’t have the gunwale around it and it was short enough that he and Audrey could climb up without too much trouble when they needed to. 

Since the boat could be babyproofed, the rest of the week was spent moving Audrey out of the apartment above the Gull and into the Rouge. They would still keep the apartment for anytime Duke went out with the boat without Audrey, but for the most part the Rouge would be her home now. By the time her doctor’s appointment came around, she was all moved in. After a long discussion with her doctor, followed by a longer discussion with Duke, she decided that she would stay in the field at work until March when she was four months along, but would avoid calls that involved obvious danger like shootouts and hostage situations, not that they expected there to be many of those in a post-trouble Haven. They also decided not to officially announce the pregnancy until February when she was past the first trimester and the risk of losing the baby was much less. 

Nathan came back to work the same day as Audrey did, but he was on desk duty for another two months as he healed. He cornered her their first day back though for a conversation. “I will never be okay with you sacrificing yourself for anything, but I can accept that it’s not my decision. I also think you marrying Duke is a mistake, especially since you haven’t even been together for that long, but again. I can accept that it’s not my decision.”

“But can you be happy for me anyway?” she asked hopefully. 

“I’m happy that you’re happy. Does that count?” 

“Yes. It does,” she smiled brightly at him and hugged him tightly. “And welcome back.” 

“Same to you,” he returned. 

With Audrey back to work the last two weeks until the wedding went by quickly. Duke’s brother Wade and his wife had come to town the weekend before the wedding and were staying in the apartment above the Gull. Audrey found Wade to be a little stiff, but liked him well enough. It amazed her though that he and Duke were brothers. They were basically exact opposites. 

With plenty of examples of their fashion sense, Audrey conned Dave and Vince into going shopping with her for her wedding dress and they finally settled on a simple white dress that went down to just above her knee. Due to the temperatures in Maine that time of year, she would also be wearing thick white tights. Duke would be wearing a nice white shirt that hung open to the point where his chest met his stomach and a pair of black harem style pants. 

When the big day rolled around, Audrey was a nervous wreck. They had decided not to do bachelor and bachelorette parties, nor to follow the tradition of not seeing each other the day of the wedding, so at least she had Duke there to help keep her calm. Otherwise she would have been crawling out of her skin. It wasn’t that she was having second thoughts because she wasn’t. Nor was it worry about something going wrong, because it was all so simple and all she really cared about was being Duke’s wife once it was over. It was just the fact that she felt like this was the start of her whole life and that was big. 

Duke, as he did everything, was completely chill about the whole thing. He didn’t stress easily. He never had. He just went with the flow which made him the perfect balance to Audrey and helped her keep it together. About twenty minutes before the sun started to set, the guests started showing up. Vince and Dave came stag, which everyone completely expected, Wade and his wife Sheila were together of course, while Dwight brought a date and Nathan brought one of the officers from the station as a friend-date. The ceremony was short and simple and timed perfectly as the kiss coincided with the last golden waves of sunlight splashing over the horizon behind them. As they were introduced as man and wife, Duke picked Audrey up in the bridal carry and carried her all the way across the dock to the Gull that way where the party was already in swing waiting for them. 

Their traditional first dance was less serious romantic and more fun romantic as Duke twirled her around the floor, both of them laughing and having fun, and even stumbling more than once since neither of them were particularly good dancers. Even Nathan had to admit that he’d never seen Audrey so happy and even Duke was radiating joy as they all partied long into the night. The next morning, the Cape Rouge set sail for a week long honeymoon. No destination planned. They would just go as the wind took them, just the way Duke liked it and Audrey was coming to appreciate it too. At least when she had the luxury to do so.


	6. Chapter 6

Once they got back, Audrey went back to work. “Good morning Detective Crocker,” Nathan said wryly before shaking his head. “That’s a sentence I never thought I would say.”

Audrey laughed. “I know what you mean.” She loved being Audrey Crocker a lot more than she liked being Audrey Parker though, so they would both get used to it. 

As planned they started telling people about the pregnancy in February and Duke started the retrofit of the Rouge. Audrey went on desk duty in March and was beyond bored with it. At the beginning of April, they found out that they were having a boy, so the shopping could start. One night, not long after that, she and Duke were curled up together, lounging on the deck of the Rouge, when he finally had enough. “Okay. Out with it,” he prompted. 

“Out with what?” Audrey asked. 

“Something’s been bothering you for a while now. Talk to me, Audrey,” he coaxed. 

She sighed heavily. “It’s just…I’m glad the troubles are gone. I really am. I’m glad people are safe and happy…”

“But…” 

“But I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I mean…My entire personality was deliberately created for the sole purpose of helping with the troubles and then sacrificing everything to disappear. I feel…useless now. Who the hell even am I without that?” 

Duke turned slightly to look at her, placing a gentle hand on her cheek. “You are my wife. The mother of my son. I know that’s not a lot. That there needs to be more to your life than that. You can’t live just for us. But I don’t ever want you to doubt that part, okay?” 

“Okay,” Audrey said with a soft smile, guessing that he wasn’t finished yet, but just wanted that part made clear which did help. Particularly since he understood that she needed more than that. 

“As far as your personality being intentionally created, so what?” he shrugged, leaning back again and pulling her back to his side. “How does anyone get their personality? You could argue that we’re all intentionally created. We’re shaped by our past experiences. Just because your memories weren’t originally your own doesn’t mean they’re not real to you. Isn’t that what matters?” 

“Yeah. I guess,” Audrey conceded the point. “But it doesn’t change the fact that my purpose is finished. I just…don’t know where to go from here.”

“Why does that have to be a bad thing?” Duke asked gently. “You have an opportunity you never have before, Audrey. The chance to choose your destiny. To find your own path to walk. To figure out who /you/ want to be.” 

“And what if my own path takes me away from you,” she whispered, airing her greatest fear. “What if I stop being the person you fell in love with you? What if…”

“Jesus, Audrey. Is that what you’ve been worried about?” Duke asked incredulously, sitting up again and turning to fully face her, taking her hands in his. “That will /never/ happen. You think I fell in love with you because of your job, or your mission, or whatever you want to call it?”

“But I don’t even know who I am anymore,” Audrey sighed sadly, looking down at their joined hands. 

Duke reached up and tilted her chin up with his fingers. “When you met me…you looked at me and saw a person. Not the ‘notorious smuggler who doesn’t care about anyone but himself’. You saw beyond that. /That/ was what made you so good at helping the troubled. Your compassion. Your strength. Your courage. Those aren’t things that can change. What you decide to do with your life doesn’t change who you are at the core. And that’s the woman I fell in love with. The parts of you that are far deeper than any job or purpose you could assign yourself.” 

“I…I’m thinking of taking a leave from the station,” she said hesitantly. She had been wanting to for a while. She was bored to death with desk duty and being in the field hadn’t been much better since the troubles stopped. There were only so many petty theft and vandalism cases she could investigate before wanting to beat her head against the wall. This conversation had just given her the courage to do so. 

“Sweetheart, you can do anything you want to do. It’s not going to make a difference to me. Or to us. You want to quit, go ahead. You want to work at the Gull, you’re welcome to. You want to learn how to run the boat and spend our time at sea, let’s go. You want to just focus on us and the baby for a while…whatever you want.”

“What if I don’t know what I want?” she asked worriedly. 

“Then you can take the time to explore your options and figure it out. If you want, I’ll teach you to meditate. That’ll help.”

“How so?” 

“It’s a way to strip away all the cluttered thoughts and ideas and worries that flood our minds and just get down to the core self. It helps to get perspective and see yourself more clearly,” Duke explained. “Helps you see what’s really important.” 

“Yeah. That sounds nice. I’ll put in for my leave of absence tomorrow. I don’t want to just quit when I don’t know if I’ll want to go back or not.” 

“Fair enough,” Duke agreed. “It’s late now, but I can start teaching you to meditate tomorrow and we’ll just take things from there.”

“Okay,” she smiled, leaning forward to kiss him lovingly. “Thank you, Duke. I will never understand how you always know the right thing to say.” 

“It’s a gift,” he joked. “Ready for bed?” 

When she nodded, Duke picked her up to carry her to bed, pulling a laugh from her. “It won’t be long before you won’t be able to do this anymore.”

“Oh please,” he rolled his eyes. “I’m stronger than you think.” 

The only reason Audrey had stuck it out so long working at the station was because she expected that she would be even more bored not working at all, but it didn’t turn out that way. Since she could do what she wanted rather than mind-numbing paperwork, she found that she could have a lot of fun. In addition to teaching her to meditate which was doing wonders, Duke took the time to teach her more about running the boat and she was falling just as much in love with the sea as he was though she doubted it would ever be as instinctual for her as it was for him. She didn’t know if she could handle this lifestyle permanently, but for now it was exactly what she needed. 

She had plenty of time to outfit the nursery in the spare room of the Rouge and double check the babyproofing efforts. By the time she was six months along they were spending a few days a week out on the water, but never got more than a day away in case something happened. The fact that everything was textbook so far and she and the baby were in perfect health made it unlikely that there would be any problems, but they wanted to be on the safe side. Audrey was glad that she hadn’t had any issues with morning sickness, though she was surprised that some of her cravings didn’t make Duke a little nauseous sometimes. He just went with the flow though and made her whatever she wanted, no matter how strange. 

It was two weeks from her due date and they were heading back from what they planned to be their last trip out before the birth when it happened. She was manning the helm with Duke perched on the wall next to her when she suddenly doubled over and a splash of water fell between her legs. “Oh crap,” she groaned. 

“Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is?” Duke asked, forcing back his panic. 

“I think I’m in labor,” she told him. 

“Okay,” Duke let out a heavy breath. “Okay we’re still about five hours out if I push it. Do you think you’ll be okay for that long?” 

“I don’t know,” she said weakly. 

“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do,” Duke decided. “I’m gonna get you down to the deck so you can lay down on the couch and I can go back and forth from up here easier. I’ll head back as fast as I can and once we get close enough I’ll radio Nathan and have an ambulance meet us at the dock. Okay?”

“Okay,” Audrey nodded, letting Duke’s forced calm ease her own panic. Getting down the ladder was an adventure, but Duke went first, using his longer arms to stay mostly behind her so that his body could hold her up if she got woozy which only happened once. Since the ladder stopped about four feet up, Duke jumped down when he got to the bottom and lifted her off of it, neither of them wanting her to jump that right now. He carried her over to the futon and laid it back so she could lay down before running inside and coming back with an armload of pillows and blankets, staying to hold her hand through the next contraction. 

“Here,” he handed her a radio after setting the channel to his paired one. “If I’m up top when you need anything use this.” 

“Duke…I’m scared,” she admitted. 

He ran a hand through her hair and leaned down for a kiss. “Me too, sweetheart, but it’ll be okay.”

“Promise?” she asked, hating how vulnerable she sounded but unable to stop it. 

“Let me tell you a little something about being at sea,” he said softly. “You never know what’s going to happen and you don’t have anyone to count on but yourself. It makes for a pretty steep learning curve and I’ve kinda mastered that aspect by now. I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you or the baby. Okay?” 

“Okay,” Audrey breathed out, feeling a little bit better. 

Duke kissed her forehead before heading back up to check their course and grab his monitoring equipment. At the speeds they were going now, he couldn’t stay gone from the helm for longer periods like he usually did, but that just made the monitors more important while he /was/ away. He had lost count of the number of times he’d gone up and down the ladder, trying to make sure that she wasn’t alone any more than she needed to be and making sure the boat didn’t wreck in the mad dash for home, but by the time they were an hour out, they were in more trafficked waters and he couldn’t leave the helm at all. 

Unfortunately, they didn’t quite make it. His radio crackled when they were just over half an hour out, and Audrey said painfully, “Duke the baby’s coming. Now.” 

“We’re almost there. Can’t you hold it a little longer?” he absolutely did /not/ whine.

“No, Duke, I can’t,” she snapped irritatedly. 

“Okay. Okay,” Duke took a deep breath for calm as he decided his course of action. He killed the throttle, pulling them to a full stop as he grabbed the ship to shore radio. They should be close enough for him to get a call through to Nathan. “Cape Rouge to Haven PD. Nate you there?” he said into the radio. 

“Duke? What’s wrong?” Nathan asked seconds later. 

“The baby’s coming and we’re still about half an hour out. We can’t make it back. If you can get a paramedic team out to us on a skiff that would be very helpful,” Duke said tightly before giving their coordinates. 

“I’ll have them on the way Asap,” Nathan promised. 

“Okay. I won’t be able to get back up to the radio, but I’ll be able to hear, so have them call in when they’re close,” Duke said quickly before dashing for the ladder. He more slid down than climbed, and knelt next to Audrey. “Do you want to do this out here or in bed?” he asked. 

“In. Please,” Audrey groaned, holding back another push. 

“Okay. One sec,” Duke said, running over to the controls to drop the anchor. He didn’t even wait to see if it set. He just hit the button before running back to her and picking her up to carry her in to their bed. 

No sooner than he set her down, she ground out, “I have to start pushing, Duke.”

“Okay,” Duke nodded, moving to settle between her legs. “Okay. We can do this,” he assured himself as much as her. “I’ve got you.” He was very glad that he’d read the part in the pregnancy book about the birth. At least he had /some/ idea what to do until help got here. He had been in a thousand different emergency situations on this boat. From storms, to breaks in the hull, to engine failure, equipment malfunctions, and he never had any problem keeping his cool and doing what needed to be done. He had never been as close to panic as he was right now though as he saw his son’s head starting to crown. Still, he managed to keep it together, crooning encouragement to Audrey as she did the hard part. 

He had just cut the cord and was cleaning the baby as the first cries echoed through the cabin as he heard Nathan’s voice. “Duke! Audrey!” 

“Back here!” Duke called, as though they couldn’t follow the sounds of the crying baby. The next thing he knew there was a rush of people into the bedroom. In addition to Nathan, there were two paramedics and an actual doctor. Duke quickly moved, still cradling the baby and gladly let the doctor take his place for the rest. He had /not/ been looking forward to dealing with her passing the placenta. Instead he moved to sit next to Audrey on the bed, still wiping the gunk off the baby with his shirt that he’d grabbed as one of the paramedics came over to take a look at him while the other one assisted the doctor. 

The paramedic knew that the baby was fine just by the clear strong cries, but he figured the new parents would need the reassurance, so he told them, “He’ll still need a full exam once we get back, but he’s perfectly fine for now.” 

“Thank you,” Audrey said with tears in her eyes as she reached up to put a hand on Duke’s arm, tilting the baby towards her so she could see him. 

Duke jolted himself out of his trance and looked at her with a bright smile and tears in his eyes, shifting the baby to her arms. “He’s perfect,” Duke breathed out, wrapping one arm around her while the other helped support the baby. 

“Yeah, he is,” Audrey said happily, leaning against her husband and gazing down at her son’s face. 

Nathan came over and put a hand on Duke’s shoulder for support and gave it a squeeze. Duke looked up, just realizing that he was there and asked, “Can you run to the nursery and grab a diaper and one of the little blankets?” 

“Yeah. Absolutely,” Nathan agreed, rushing off to do just that, keeping his eyes averted as the doctor was finishing up. 

When he got back and handed the requested items over, Duke sat up straight enough to put the baby on the bed in front of him. He had practiced this on baby dolls more times than he could count, but it was considerably more difficult with all the squirming. It took a little while but he got the diaper on and a reasonable swaddle to the blanket before returning him to Audrey as she was getting her vitals taken. 

“Okay,” the doctor told Audrey after a few minutes. “You both look good, so you have a choice. We can take you back in our boat if you want, but you might be more comfortable finishing the trip here. I’ll stay with you either way just in case and I still want you both at the hospital once we get back.” 

Audrey looked up at Duke for his opinion and he nodded. “I’ll take us the rest of the way back. You can just rest here.” 

“Thank you, Duke. For everything,” Audrey said with tears in her eyes. 

Duke leaned down and kissed her forehead and then the baby’s. “No, Audrey. Thank /you/,” he whispered before heading up to pull up the anchor and get them moving again. 

It was only a few minutes before Nathan joined him. “You did good, Duke,” he told his friend. “He’s amazing.” 

“He is isn’t he,” Duke grinned. 

“And now you can always say that you delivered your son yourself,” Nathan laughed. 

“And I desperately hope I never have to deliver another baby in my life,” Duke joined his laughter. 

“But you did good. Better than I would have. I’d have been a total wreck.”

“Oh I was on the inside, believe me,” Duke huffed a laugh. 

“I believe you,” Nathan said amusedly. “I can’t believe you went out and risked it.”

“She still had two weeks before she was due. This was going to be our last trip out until then and we were already on the way back when her water broke.” 

“Well it all worked out, so that’s the important thing.” Nathan nodded, hearing the tension in Duke’s voice and not wanting to start an argument over responsibility right now. He hadn’t meant it to be accusing, but Duke had apparently taken it that way. “Did you decide on a name?” he changed the subject. 

“We did, but I think she’d rather we tell you together, so…”

“Okay. That’s fair,” Nathan agreed. 

“Thank you, Nate. For getting out here so quick. And for bringing an actual doctor instead of just the paramedics,” Duke said gratefully. 

“The doctor was pure luck,” Nathan chuckled. “She happened to be in the station making a report when your call came in and offered to come help.” 

“Well it’s still appreciated.” 

“Anytime,” Nathan clapped Duke on the shoulder as they sidled up to the dock outside the Gull where the ambulance was parked. Duke shut her down and slid down the ladder to tie her off with Nathan’s help. By the time they was finished, Audrey and the baby were just being loaded into the ambulance and Duke had just enough time to get in and ride with them. Nathan promised to meet them at the hospital. 

The exams didn’t take long and both mother and baby were pronounced to be in perfect health, but they still wanted them to stay overnight just to be sure as was routine. It also gave them the chance to get all the baby’s paperwork filled out. Nathan didn’t come in until about two hours after they got there. He wanted to give them some time and also spread the word. Enough people had heard Duke’s call for help that it was all over town by now, and he assured everyone that everything was fine, the baby was fine and there were quite a few laughs over the fact that Duke ended up delivering the baby before they got there. 

Once Nathan got to the hospital, he was directed to their room, and Audrey met him with a bright, though tired, smile. “Nathan! Meet Parker Charles Crocker,” she told him. 

Nathan laughed at the name and came over to get a better look at the baby. “May I?” he asked holding out his arms and when Audrey nodded, he took the baby and started cooing at him for a few minutes before he asked, “So I get Parker, but is there a story behind Charles?” 

“The woman who took my place in the barn was called Charlotte,” Audrey told him. “We wanted to honor her sacrifice.” 

“It’s fitting,” Nathan said turning his attention back to the baby. He had long done the math and realized that she had already been pregnant when the barn came, but he didn’t say anything. They clearly didn’t want anyone to know. He didn’t stay long though. Clearly Audrey needed some rest, so he handed the baby back to Duke before taking his leave. 

Duke was exhausted himself after running himself ragged trying to get them back, but he was far too keyed up to sleep, so he just sat there with the baby as Audrey drifted off. When Parker started getting fussy not long later, he didn’t want him to wake Audrey so he went to walk the halls with him and was only marginally surprised to run into Vince and Dave. Dave was overjoyed to see the baby and just cooed at him for a while, but Vince sighed. “So there is a new Crocker,” he said sadly. 

“Yeah. There is. And so you know…I dumped the old family journal and started a new one. He won’t be pushed into the family legacy. I’m telling him to work /with/ the guard and whoever replaces Audrey. He won’t be any threat to you,” Duke said seriously. If it came to it, he would get his son the hell out of Haven and make sure they never came back. 

“I’m glad to hear that,” Vince relaxed a great deal, pulling a flask from his pocket. “To the new Crocker legacy,” he toasted, taking a drink before handing it to Duke and then Dave. 

“Speaking of…can I get a copy of that sketch you did with Audrey? I’d like him to have some idea who his friends are in case we’re not around the next time,” Duke asked. 

“I’ll get you a copy in the next few days,” Vince agreed. He had hoped that Duke would take the family in a new direction, and was glad that his hopes were founded. As much as he wanted to agree with most of the guard that /no/ troubled should ever be killed, he was practical enough to know that there were occasionally ones that were too dangerous not to end. Like the one and only one that Duke had intentionally ended. 

When the baby started screaming again, Duke huffed and rolled his eyes. “Excuse me. He apparently doesn’t like to be still,” he said as he started walking again and Vince and Dave said their goodbyes. 

Since Audrey had decided to breastfeed, at least at first, Duke had to wake her up when it was time for Parker to eat again, but she was soon back to sleep. Duke went back to walking the halls until the baby went to sleep and then took him back to the room to settle him in the crib so he could lay down on the couch and crash himself. Unfortunately, he only got about half an hour before the baby was crying again, so he got up and continued his walk. His comment about Parker not liking to be still was more true than he’d realized as the baby fell back to sleep almost as soon as he started walking and after three more tries to put him down, he gave up and just resigned himself to a long night. 

One of the nurses offered to relieve him after the next feeding and he hesitated a minute before agreeing. He desperately wanted some sleep, so for the next four hours the baby was passed from nurse to nurse to nurse until Audrey woke up. She was still too weak to be on her feet for very long yet, but she found that rocking and bouncing him in her arms worked just as well until Duke woke up two hours later. He’d never been one to need a lot of sleep, so six hours was good enough for him. 

They were released around noon and headed back to the Rouge and quickly learned that they could put him down there, making Duke laugh. “Just like his dad. Happier on the water.”

Audrey shook her head amusedly. “Maybe it’s just because he’s used to it. I mean, we lived on the boat for almost the entire pregnancy and he was born on the water.” 

“Probably,” Duke nodded. “I’m just glad he’s sleeping on his own.” 

“You and me both,” she chuckled, leaning back in his arms. “I guess it’s a good thing we were able to babyproof the Rouge.” 

Parker started sleeping through the night at about six weeks old, and Audrey only had another month left of her leave, but she decided that she wasn’t going back to the station. She let Nathan know that she would always be available to help as a consultant if he needed anything, but a mostly crime free Haven didn’t give her enough of a challenge to keep her happy. She realized that she may have been created as a workaholic FBI agent, which came in handy during the troubles, but was just a liability now. She needed to find new challenges, and it just so happened that the challenge of running a boat in ever changing circumstances, especially combined with motherhood, was plenty of challenge to keep her busy and happy. 

For the first year of Parker’s life, they went out often, but made sure never to get more than a few hours from shore. Audrey was a little too nervous to be far from medical attention, and not quite secure in her abilities as a mom yet, despite how often Duke assured her that she was amazing. She wondered if it was just a parent thing because Duke was the same way. She thought he was an amazing dad, but he was always second guessing himself, too afraid to turn into his own father. 

It was more than a little amusing to most people that once Parker started toddling around, he was still unable to walk on land, too used to the boat. He was toddling around the boat by the time he was eleven months old but it was four months after that before he could manage to do so on land. 

Between the sizable nest egg that Duke had built up smuggling and how much more money the Gull was making now that he didn’t have to fix massive damage every other week and tourism was booming again, they didn’t have to worry about money, but Duke had every intention of getting back to his fun business now that they were settled. Audrey still didn’t want to know too much about it, which was manageable since Duke didn’t do much of the actual business part out in the open on the boat. The few times anyone came to the boat it was for a drop-off or pickup that he couldn’t handle himself, and during those times, Audrey just kept Parker in the living areas. 

Haven was still their home base, but they were often gone for days or even weeks at a time for runs. The apartment above the Gull didn’t start getting any use at all until Parker started school and even then it wasn’t particularly often. Duke saved the long runs for school vacations and mostly took weekend runs while school was in session. There were a few times that he needed to make longer runs, leaving Parker with Audrey in the apartment though. The youngest Crocker never did sleep particularly well on land, but at least it was better than when he was a baby. 

Audrey and Duke had a lot of discussions on when was the best time to tell their son about the troubles and the Crocker legacy and they finally settled on fifteen. Well, almost sixteen since they wanted to do it during the summer and he was born in September. They took the boat out so they could have all the privacy in the world before sitting him down for the talk. Naturally he was disbelieving at first, but they managed to convince him that it was all true. Duke told him about the previous Crocker legacy and how abhorrent he found it, glad that Parker agreed with him on that, and explained how he had handled it and that he’d had to muddle through with no guidance and hadn’t even known about it at all until he found his family journal. Parker felt bad for his dad. He couldn’t imagine how difficult that must have been. 

Once everything was out in the open, Duke finished with, “I don’t want you to feel like you /have/ to do anything. You choose your own path and we will support you a hundred percent. If you want to leave Haven and never come back and avoid the troubles altogether, you’re more than welcome to. I didn’t have a choice, thanks to a promise my father forced on me before he died, but you will /always/ have a choice.”

“Will you and mom be going back to help?” Parker asked them. 

“Yes,” Audrey nodded. “Just because it’s not my job anymore doesn’t mean that I can just turn my back on the people who need my help.”

“And I’m not letting her go into that without me watching her back,” Duke added. 

“Then I’ll help too,” Parker decided. 

Audrey smiled proudly at her son and pulled him in for a hug. “You’re a good boy, Park. But know that you can always change your mind later if you want to. There’s still about five years before the troubles start at all and ten before they start getting bad.” As much as she wanted to protect her son from ever being a part of it, she knew that she couldn’t do that. He had far too much of both of his parents in him. Between Duke’s disregard of the rules and her compassion, combined with both of their willingness to help people, they were never keeping him away. Not to mention the fact that if they started trying to control him now, it would backfire. He’d spent his entire life being taught to choose his own path. No one would ever be able to tell him what to do. 

Parker got his own boat for his eighteenth birthday. It was similar to the Rouge, but a newer, cleaner, model and Duke had a second berth built outside the Gull for it. Much to Audrey’s chagrin, but not her surprise, their son at least partially followed in his father’s footsteps. He was more conscientious of what he carried, not willing to cross the line as far as Duke was, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t do any smuggling at all. Audrey just decided to consider it a happy medium and took the same, ‘if I don’t see it, it’s not happening’ stance as she did with Duke. Thankfully, for him, the smuggling was much more of a side operation. His main job was fishing and he supplied most of the seafood for the Gull and a few other restaurants in town. 

Just like the last time, Nathan’s trouble was one of the first to come back, which was their cue to park it back in Haven and Audrey, at Nathan’s request, picked up her badge again. Things weren’t quite as bad yet, but it gave her some time to get back in the swing of things before they got that way. They were glad to find that Parker had inherited her immunity to the troubles, and that she hadn’t lost it by giving up the job. By the time Charlotte showed up, this time called Paige, they were glad to have the help, and Audrey had new appreciation for the ‘games’ that Vince and Dave had played with her the last time. How did you tell someone that everything they thought they were was a lie? 

Audrey was surprised when Howard paid her a visit, and actually greeted him with a hug and introduced her son. When the time came for the barn, she helped him explain things to her and Paige tearfully agreed to go. They thankfully made it through the entire incident without either of the Crocker men having to use their curse, though both got activated in different fights. It was only a few years after that when Duke and Audrey became grandparents, since Parker had wanted to wait until after the troubles to have children of his own. By the time the troubles came around the next time, Duke and Audrey had already passed of old age and the Rouge had been passed to their grandson, Parker having decided to keep his own boat. 

From then on, any time the troubles came to Haven, a Crocker was there to help. Duke had succeeded in changing his family’s legacy. It wasn’t until two hundred years after Duke and Audrey had passed before one of Charlotte’s incarnations made the ultimate sacrifice and killed the man she loved to end the troubles forever and Haven never again knew anything but peace.


End file.
